Festival

Summer is festival time in Japan. I went to my first festival since New Year's, and it was much more festive, probably because it wasn't 7 degrees. Hahah...

Pete, Yumi and I went to Hiratsuka, where the biggest Tanabata festival in the Kanto area is held.



Tanabata, the star festival, is based on a folktale. You may've heard it; it exists in various cultures, about Orihime (the daughter of the Sky King) and Hikoboshi, a star. These two lovers were separated by a river (the Milky Way), and only allowed to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7).

So Tanabata is celebrated on July 7. People celebrate by writing their wishes on strips of paper or cloth, and attaching them to bamboo trees.



They also decorate the trees. This is popular with children. The childcare centre next door had put up a makeshift Tanabata tree, with decorations. A bit like Christmas trees, I guess; my local train station also boasted a bunch of Tanabata trees put up by the local school and strewn with decorations made from instant ramen packets, egg packets and other recycled containers.



The festival in Hiratsuka was buzzing. There was Bon Odori dancing, accompanied by the Tanabata Matsuri song. The parade lasted about 25 minutes, so we heard the song looped about 50 times...



All the streets around Hiratsuka station were lined with stalls. I finally got to see some of these traditional festival stalls.



This last one is a goldfish catching game. You have to catch a goldfish using a very thin paper net. The paper, of course, dissolves in the water, and will break under the full weight of a goldfish, but if you are very fast and have deft hands, you can scoop the goldfish into your bowl before the net breaks. The lady in the photo couldn't get one, but her friend caught three.

We spent most of the festival going from stall to stall, buying things. Because there were three of us, we were able to share a LOT of food without getting full. I mean a lot. We bought:
-okonomiyaki (vegetable pancake)
-a skewer with pieces of steak
-takoyaki (octopus balls)
-karage (fried chicken)
-more chicken
-fried potatoes
-kebab
-pineapple
-smoked ayu (fish)
-grilled sweet corn
-toffee apple
-shaved ice

Pete ate the ayu. I had a bite out of the side; it was very... well, fish-y. Thing is, it was a whole fish on a skewer. Pete declared it was delicious, until he got to the very middle part, where the fish's internal organs were. The look of horror on his face was classic. 'This is just horrible,' he kept saying, and we had to get some strawberry-flavoured shaved ice fast so he could get the taste of 'fish stomach acid or something' out of his mouth. Hah...

Anyway, it was good fun. ^_^

(By the way, I added pictures to my post about the soccer (three posts down).)