And on the Ox, I picked up this strange feeling as I cycled by.
The rat joined the other animals in the race to the palace, climbing on the ox, who was running in front, only to jump off when they had reached the palace to become the first animal of the zodiac.
If you head north on a bike (most of the passengers will head in the other direction on the ox carts for the guided tour and lunch), you will ride on sandy tracks that rim the island, to La Passe, Anse Severe and Anse Patates, three beaches with calm waters that alternate in color between bands of turquoise and sapphire.
In Japan, more than a hundred thousand tons of eel are consumed annually (about seventy per cent of the worldwide eel catch), mostly kabayaki-style and during the hottest days of midsummer, on and around the Day of the Ox on the Chinese zodiac, in late July (a tradition invented by the owner of an eel restaurant in the eighteenth century).
The evening will include a dragon parade with lots of sound and fury, the banquet and many predictions for those born on previous Years of the Ox (1925, 1937, 1949, 1961 and so on) and a recount of all their virtues--brains, pillars of society, patience, leadership.
Blame it on the Year of the Ox - or the year of hugs and kisses, "ox", as I'm calling it.
The Day of the Ox fell on July 30th in 2016, and for weeks beforehand the convenience stores and supermarkets in my west Tokyo neighborhood distributed full-color flyers advertising various kabayaki sets that could be ordered in advance for between ten and thirty U.S. dollars.
Wide shots underscore just how vast the desolation is and how insignificant the pioneers; the tight shots bring us close enough to see the sweat on the back of the oxen, dust streaked on sunburned faces.
This distance was again obvious in the final piece of the first half of the concert, Darius Milhaud's short ballet, "Le Boeuf sur le toit". The title of this piece literally translates to "The Ox on the Roof," and was inspired by Milhaud's two-year stay in Brazil.
His wild accent often startled his audiences, but they were soon giggling at his folksy jokes, like the parable in which a flea boasts to the ox on whose back he is riding: "Look how far we have ploughed today". My favourite featured an Arabian sultan, who went to Manchester to buy a cooling system for his palace.
Later that evening, Burnham slipped over the driver's seat, dropped between the two wheels of the wagon, lowered himself and fell between the legs of the oxen on his back in the road.
