"Look! FIRE DANCE!" My friends laughed at me, shook their heads incredulously. "No, really!"
But I saw flames whirling in the air above the heads of the tourists at the Nakijin castle site on the 26th. But...the Tahitian Fire Dance is usually done by a somber, muscle-clad Polynesian, not by a witty, fully-clothed street performer like the one we saw. I think new equipment and safer methods were supposed to make it a better act, but somehow, the burning-batons juggling act didn't have the same awe as "Duel of Death".
Maybe that's what's been done with awe due saints who've given their lives battling the gates of hell. Some imps come along and belittle them, claim the enlightened, relevant way is to play with fire in moderation!
