We had a three day weekend due to the national holiday 'sports day'. Many schools have sports festivals but they are only interesting for the students, and with the young ones, their parents. We will hold ours at the end of November. I wasn't interested so I looked for other things to do. On Saturday I went to Japanese class and on Sunday Erin and I went to the Otsu Festival and then to Kyoto.
The pictures aren't great but they will give you an idea of the goings on. On the back of each 'float' was a very old, embroidered tapestry. In the floats were musicians and moving dolls. It reminded me of the dolls that used to be in the windows of the stores on 5th Ave. in NYC at Christmas time when I was young. Many of the historical buildings and homes had decorative fabrics hung and there were many people watching from the second story windows - again reminding me of NYC but this time of the people watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I wonder what made me recall those childhood memories during this very different festival. The roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes being sold now that it's fall? Also a NYC memory... who knows. Anyway it was interesting.
It was a Hikiyama festival - 'Hikiyama are large and high floats, that are pulled (hiki) around town.
They can be more than two stories high, and include a band, dancers, dolls or other decoration or entertainment.'
Compare the pictures below, in the first one the doll has a fox mask and
on the next one it's turned into a princess.
This one has Momotaro - Peach Boy - coming out of his peach.
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| This is AnPan Man (discussed in a previous blog) dressed for the festival. |
There was also a mikoshi or two being pulled around.
A mikoshi (神輿 ?) is a divine palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine.
We enjoyed some festival food.
And then there was this little parade which I think
had something to do with the mikoshi - so a Shinto thing.
An interesting name for a cafe...
we weren't really sure if was a cafe (it looked like it was) or some sort of counseling place.
There are, after all some VERY strange names for shops and cafes here.
It was fairly early when we'd had enough, and since Kyoto was only a stop away we decided to go there. Erin showed me some places I haven't been to and we had a delicious tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) dinner.
A sure sign of fall. Matsutaki mushrooms (very, very expensive - I've never tasted one) and chestnuts everywhere, along with the smell of roasting sweet potatoes. Many of the seasonal sweets are made with sweet pastes made of chestnuts or sweet potatoes as well.
We were supposed to get back to Hikone with 6 minutes to catch the last bus home. But for some reason the train slowed down for when we were passing the last few stations and we were uncharacteristically late. One clock we passed said the time was already when the time for the bus to leave so we didn't run up or down the stairs. But then Erin saw a bus at the stop. We didn't know if it was one we could take but we started to run and it started to pull away. So we stopped, but it stopped too! Again very uncharacteristically. We hoped on and I asked where it was going and YEAH!!!! it would take us home. I was tired and REALLY didn't want to walk but didn't want to pay for a cab either... LUCKY!
I was glad to have Monday off just to take it easy, cook, take a bike ride, etc. It's cooled down considerably since last week so it's comfortable to ride around now. The nights are actually in the 50s and will go down into the 40s this week! We went from sweating from the heat and humidity to late fall weather without 'pleasant in a t-shirt' weather. Too bad. I hope it doesn't mean there will be an early or colder than usual winter.
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