Somen is a type of noodle that is often eaten cold. The people a couple towns away have a festival celebrating these delicious noodles and we ALTs stopped in to enjoy the festivities.
Read More...Similar to the town festival in Kazusa a few days back, this place had all sorts of games. You can win bouncy balls, candy, fish and even eels!
The streets were decorated beautifully. Japan is famous for its Tori Gates and they are all over the place. This shot was just off the main drag of the festival and some kids were being pulled behind a forklift in a hay "sled". The sled was basically a wooden pallet with some two by fours on the bottom. It looked like fun.
The festival was on a brick road. The town is more crowed on this weekend than at any other point in the year. All the shops put their own wares outside on tables and other people setup tents and tables. You can get all sorts of sweets and candy. There's all sorts of fried foods and noodles to stuff your face. And stuff we did.
There was this band playing just down the road. These guys looked cooler than they sounded to be honest but I enjoyed it all the same.I had to get a couple shots of them
The drummer was too cool and having a great time.
This kid makes me happy. He's a lot of fun and his mother is making sure he's learning English. Eric is our resident Dumbledore. He has been in Japan as an ALT for 4 years.
Chris says hello.
Up the street a piece was a stage. They stuck all these cute kids on stage and had them play a few songs. They played the wedding song and a couple others I didn't recognize.
After that some kids got up on stage and danced to a mashup of disney songs.
After the mickey mouse cuteness some other kids rocked it out on the taiko drums.
They were good! Taiko drumming is pretty incredible to watch and listen, I hope these kids keep it up so they can smash for real when they get older.
Next we walked down the road a bit more and across from the free somen booth was a bunch of groups of people costumed and made up. They got down to dancing together but the music kept cutting out. Eventually the music shut off completely and everyone just sang the song.
After all those festivities there was a short parade. It was led by a school marching band.
The bad rolls on.
Our friend and ALT Rowan lives on the street the parade and festival rolls down. He lives on the second floor.
The police helped to clear the way. They aren't butt holes about it though, they're generally pretty nice people, japanese coppers.
This was the one real floats of the parade. I have no idea what the big guy was about but I loved it.
These kids were carrying some sort of thing. I have no idea what it is, but I think you chuck coins into it for luck. I'll have to ask my coworkers about it.
The people on the float and walking in the parade threw this stuff to the crowd. I don't know exactly what it is but its pretty gross. It has no flavor and is generally an unpleasant experience.
Overall the parade was really great. We got to see lots of our students hanging out outside of school and they are always more warm to talk to us in that environment. My favorite thing about this festival by far however, is the free somen. They cook a bunch of noodles and serve it in small bowls with some pretty delicious sauce. I'm a fan.
