March 2000
just north of the Taku interchange when I
seethemofftotheright.Somethirty
colorful, bulbous shapes at differingalti-
tudes from treetop height to perhaps 5,000
feet floating lazilyinthe azure afternoon
sky.TheSagaInternationalBalloonFi-
esta doesn’t officially being until
Nov. 19th, but a number of early
arrivalsarealreadyup.Ican
hardlywait until Saturday.
November 20th dawns calm
and cold. Broken cirrus make for
unlimitedvisibility. JapanRail-
road has erected a temporary sta-
tion right at the Saga launch site,
soI leave the “driving” toJR.
Missingthe BalloonFanta-
sia Iresolved todrivedownthe
nextdaytogetpicturesofthe
StatueofLiberty,Thomasthe
Tank Engine, Saga Banks comic
strip character Tom of “Tom and
Jerry” fame,the colossalMich-
elin tire man, and Doraemon, the
Japanese cartoon cat.
TheSagaBankballoonis
oneofthefewwithafemale
pilot.Clearlyafastidiouslady,
Tom’sisthe onlyballoonI see
thatnevertouchestheground.
Beforeinflationanddeflation,
Tom’s ground crewspread a huge
mat to protect the envelope from
any unseen obstacles in the grass.
Perhaps the most interesting
design was onthe Saga balloon.
ItboastedahugegraphicoftheSaga
Fiestamascot.Theanimallookslikea
birdwithoutwings.Ithaslargeyellow
feetandyellow-glovedhands,apurple
body with a pink beak and a white tummy.
It’spaintedina runningposturebut has
the potentialfor flight with huge Dumbo
Elephantears. I was unable to deter-
minewhattheanimaloritsnamewas.
Perhapsa mutant Ninja roadrunner.
One of the most unusual balloons at
the Fiesta was that sponsored by J-Phone,
aJapanesecellulartelephonecompany.
Unlike traditional hot air balloons, it was
stabilizer fins and an upper and lower tail
rudder. Its basket had wheels on either
side of the front. At the rear of the basket
behind the pilot was a propeller enclosed
in acircular metal housing.Looking much
like the flat-bottomed airboats common
the FloridaEverglades,the balloon’s
hot air raised the machine to about thirty
meterswhereuponthepilotstartedthe
engine and headed southeast. After going
about twokilometers, the pilot dida 360
degree turn and began descending to land
nearhis originallaunchsite.He made a
fairlysmoothlandingbutwas
unable tostop.His ground crew
andthatofanadjacentballoon
pulledontethers and pushedon
thebaskettofinallybringthe
device to a halt, barely avoiding a
collision with a beautiful yellow
balloonfromHokkaido.
Runningparallelwiththe
launchsite,the KaseRiverhad
motor boats escortingspectators
alongtheentiredistanceofthe
event.Besidesthespectacular
views ofthe many balloons, there
were other attractions. A Cessna
172 was joined by two otherfixed
wing aircraft that conductedlow
altitude fly-bys between noon and
12:30followedbyatwo-hour
demonstrationofsportkitefly-
ing. Aside from the balloons and
booths,peoplewatchingwasa
kick.I obligedtwoyoung Japa-
neseelementaryschoo lboy s
seeking foreigners’autographs in
exchange for their picture.
Like many Japanese munici-
palities, Saga has a sister-city re-
lationship with a city in America.
But unlike virtually all othersuch
cooperativesetups,thisonewithGlens
Falls,NewYorkisbasedona“shared
love of ballooning.” All in all, it’s easy to
see why such a natural sport appeals to so
many people.I’d surelike to give balloon-
inga try.
