Kitamoto Matsuri

A tiny local Nebuta matsuri that nobody besides residents and participants know/care about. Those are usually the best kind of matsuri.

Kyoto - Gion Matsuri #RandomJapan

I was in Kyoto after a shoot so I took some time to walk around... As it turns out, It was in the middle of Gion Matsuri, so I got some quick shots.

Enjoy.

Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen Matsuri (Summer Festival) #RandomJapan #RealJapan

I was in Nagano for the Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen Matsuri a few weeks back. Here is a quick and dirty selection of the sights and sounds of a typical Japanese small-town summer festival. Shot on the Sony RX100m3.

7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-08-11) Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri, Obon Rituals and more...

00:00 MONDAY Ashes to Ashes
01:00 notTUESDAY Web Surfing
01:22 WEDNESDAY Obon Rituals
02:03 THURSDAY Caffenation
03:22 FRIDAY Homecoming
04:23 SATURDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 1
05:32 SUNDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 2

Japan How It Is - Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen Summer Festival

In the summer I went to the Cat's home town in Nagano. The timing coincided with a relatively new Summer festival in the Onsen (Hot Spring) district of the town. The Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen Matsuri.

Ofunato Summer 2011 Volunteering – Water Closets and Free Candyfloss.

The Thursday and Friday saw me back with All Hands and onto a Job that taxed us both physically and mentally. We Had to remove 3 prefab bathrooms…

WITHOUT destroying the walls…

Shibukawa Bellybutton Festival

The annual Bellybuton festival was upon us once again and as always I went up the road to join in the festivities…

Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri. The best festival in Gunma :D

Once every two years Shibukawa’s main towns do battle. It is all friendly rivalry but it is intense none the less.

When I first Started this blog published a post about it.

Well its 2010… and Like I said… I did indeed take part again. This time I joined the actual community that I live in and made a point of helping out with some of the prep work. Brian and I are the only ALTs in Shibs who were willing to go all out for our towns. Which is something we, and our towns will never forget.

 

I live in a little town called Shimogo. It is the 2nd town in Shibukawa city after Shibukawa itself. For some reason we have a higher percentage of badasses and generally stronger people in our town than anywhere else in Shibs. So I guess I fit right in :D

 

“It is a trial of your strength, stamina and commitment to your community…”

 

I pulled from 10H00 till 22H00 on both the Saturday and the Sunday and being a member of the team i also did all the social things too which brought me much closer to the people whose town I live in.

We worked, sweated, bled and gave 100% together to do Shimogo proud. With Shared hardship comes real friendship. I met some truly awesome people and will meet them again in the near future.

I also managed to interact with many of my students who were participating in the festival with their own towns.

This year was also the first time in 14 years (I may be wrong) that Motomachi hill was a part of the route. The last time it was done, a Dashi’s brakes failed and killed a participant. There were fatalities this year but judging by the state of my heart at the top I am surprised we didn’t have a few heart attacks. To be fair.. we did RUN up a third of the bloody thing (but like I said… Shimogo is strong)

 

The Shimogo Dashi ‘drivers’. They make Leonidas and his 300 Spartans look like little girls.

As night fell all the hard work became worth it. Seeing all the dashi lined up around the central intersection in Shibukawa with all the teams in their local outfits. Taiko drums beating and flutes singing. It takes you back to days past. 2010 is absorbed by a dream of an era long since past. Only that dream is a reality.

There was also the customary ‘Momi’ (the rope moshpit/wall of death that I described in the post 2 years ago) Unlike the last time I was both on and a direct contributor to our flawless record. not a single town in Shibukawa could stand up to the combined massive might of our town. Azumacho came close but we still won out in the end :D

 

I would like to say it was the best day of my life.. but I have had so many of those that it starts to lose it’s potency after a while. It comes down to this. If I had died during the event… or for that matter, right now as I type this.. I would die happy and content. It was one of those experiences that very few have ever had. I know for a fact that very few ALTs would ever go this far and put themselves through the kind of hardship, fatigue that the Dashi Matsuri brings.

 

It is a trial of your strength, stamina and commitment to your community and your neighbours. It brings you closer to the people you depend on, and those who depend on you.

Shibukawa Bellybutton Festival.

 

Shibukawa is right in the middle of Japan and thus it has been dubbed the Bellybutton of Japan. We like to celebrate this once a year!

Japan doesn’t really need much of an excuse for a festival. Just about every machi has some sort of mikoshi moving or firework exploding shindiggery to celebrate whatever it is the town is famous for.

In Shibs, we celebrate that scar we often forget in the middle of our abdomens.

The idea is simple. Paint faces on your belly and parade them around in the street…

They close off the central  intersection in town and line the street with stalls that contain various festival foods and games as well. Its a big party in the streets.

It was particularly entertaining for me because It is essentially in the feeder area for my school so a large proportion of the kids were either my students or my ex students or related to my students (and therefore knew all about the legendary Daruku-sensei) so I couldn’t go more than 3 metres without being stopped and chatted to.

On the Saturday I was going to join in the parade again like I did last year but after we got ourselves all painted up and fuelled up on the beer boosters, Spartacus killed Theocles and the heavens wept.

While those of us in the parade couldn’t have given two shits in a sand basket, the powers that be saw fit to cancel the parade… BASTARDS!

No worries. We will have another chance next year :D

Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri

ok so this is the 2nd last big post i have... promise.. just gotta get the backlog out of the way and then i can get on with more random stuff :3

The Shibukawa dashimatsuri happens once every 2 years and it involves each of the different wards of the city pulling giant traditional floats (or Dashi) around town. Everyone dresses up in their ward's colours and has a big weekend long party. The dashi is a giant wooden monstrosity with people playing traditional instruments and gaudy mascots representng the wards placed on them.

On the saturday I took a stroll up the road in the miserable rainy weather and almost immediately encountered 3 of my students, and one of my colleagues waiting out the rain before the pulling got underway again :3
I strolled up the road under my 100Y umbrella, took a few pics and not entirely certain what was going on really. Then it began. I heard some chanting and different groups began to move their floats around. it was energetic but it seemed a bit dampened by the rain. i made a right toward the Tsutaya and wtched there for a bit. The group that my student's were with came around eventually and one of the 1st graders gripped my arm and pointed at the dashi and said to me "Ishogi wasshoi".. i was like WTF. he then bolts off and comes back with his sister and her boyfriend in tow. They through very broken english and easy Japanese basically explained that they wanted me to help pull the dashi. Yeah why not... could be fun....

THAT WAS IT! basically pulling the dashi is a cross between skanking and Tug of War. it is insanely high energy and a TONNE of fun!!!!!So i'm having a great time shouting Wasshoi Wasshoi and stomping along pulling a huge ass float around then we stop next to another ward's float. Float race ! yup we had to race the other group.. sadly we just lost, but it was a blast!

Then the next bit of awesomeness happened. I'm not entirely certain what it is but when the dashi's are stopped we did this amped up wall of death and epic skank... JUST FOR FUN!!!! all the time shouting WASSHOI WASSHOI!!!!! at one such stop our shouting tore a hole in the sky and the rain came down in buckets.... so we SHOUTED LOUDER!!!! and it got harder.. so we shouted EVEN LOUDER!!!!

eventually saturday was at an end and we made our way back to the ward from which the dashi came, and i went back home soaked.

Sunday came along and it was just a grey day. no real rain. I went to a traditional clothes shop, got me some Jika Tabi and walked around for a bit. I found the previous night's group eventuallu and was instantly recognised and half dragged onto the rope by some of the more boistrous high schoolers from the night before. I continued along the same way as the day before.. all day..

when i finally got to bed i was broken... in the morning i couldn't move my right arm... how the hell do you sprain your bicep??!!!

Needless to say, in 2010 i'm gonna be joining in again :3

Mabashi Hanabi Matsuri

On the weekend of the 9th of August Byron (one of the new Maebashi ALTs) told all the other new ALTs about the big fireworks shindig that was happening there so Tricia and I got a train there early.. hit some stores and got some Purikura (ts quite a process.... and i still need to get my pics from her :p) Then we met up with everyone else at the Kensho and walked to the bridge where the fireworks were going to be set off.... We also met the group B ALTs who had just arived a few days before. There were Yukata girls EVERYWHERE (drooooooooooool) and it was much like i'd imagined a big matsuri would be. there were Takoyaki and manju stands and a generally festive atmosphere despite the sprinkling of rain.

The pics are not mine... They were taken by Michelle Englar and Byron Ahn:
Michelle and Rosie with 2 girls in their yukata (kawaii) [photo by Michelle Englar]

Fireorks...2 straight hours of them! [photo by Byron Ahn]

Matsuri Munchies [photo by Byron Ahn]

[photo by Byron Ahn]

[photo by Byron Ahn]

[photo by Byron Ahn]

The Grand Finale.. the set the bridge on fire.. well not quit but that was the effect! [photo by Byron Ahn]

After the pyro Byron, Sayoko, Brian (the other new Shibukawa ALT) and I went to Dickens English pub and proceded to do a bowls club :p drunk conversations are the win! [photo by Byron Ahn]

and this is how we looked after much drinking outside the Family Mart in the burbs near Byron's and Sayoko's apartments... Yeah Brian and I had to kip in Maebashi and train back to Shibs the next day :p [photo by Byron Ahn]