I've really been enjoying the festival season here in Japan. At this time of year there is a festival just about every day! You could get tired of them pretty quickly, but I've had a blast at the two I've been to. I went to the Gaina Matsuri on August 2-3 in Yonago. The first day focused on the thing shown to the left - lantern balancing and that parade. It was really cool to watch and one of the lanterns fell right above my head once! We also saw some catch on fire that had to be quickly stomped out. I think the one the kid is balancing isn't lit, but they don't play around in Japan. Those paper lanterns were lit on fire and being carried around.
The second day we went to a great fireworks display followed by some Taiko drumming.
The other big thing at festivals is food stalls. Festival food stpales include takoyaki (octopus dumplings), manjuu (bean paste confections), ikayaki (grilled squid), and french fries! The stall pictured to the right sells yam fries.The other festival I went to was the Tsuki no Wa (Moon Wheel) festival in Yasugi (20 minutes away from Yonago by train) There we saw the famous "3000 fireworks" fireworks display. It was amazing! The fireworks were RIGHT THERE next to us. Also they had some of the loudest fireworks I've ever experienced. More than a few times I heard bawling children. Following the fireworks there was a rock concert featuring the Japanese band Chunk followed by a screaming band named...something else. We really enjoyed Chunk so we got t-shirts and had the band sign them! Good fun.
Please check out the rest of the pictures - more cool lanterns and fireworks and cute children.
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