Kawagoe Matsuri

Yesterday we went to Kawagoe, located in Saitama, for the famous large matsuri (festival). It was about 30 minutes on the train from Ikebukuro, we set off after my last lesson on Saturday and arrived when it was starting to get dark - about 5.30pm (so early!). The place was packed full of people and had such a fun, lively atmosphere. On all the side streets and some running parallel there were food stalls and game stalls for children, and on the main road there was the impressive parade itself.

Apparently Kawagoe is famous for this festival and it was easy to see why. There were elaborate and beautifully decorated floats on large wooden wheels being dragged up and down the streets by large teams of men, women and small children. When the floats came to stop in front of either a stage with performers on or another float, they would stop it, spin the platform to face the opponent and have a music battle with drums, wooden flutes and metal percussion type instruments.

It's sort of hard to describe and, frankly, I'm not at all sure what any of the background story about the floats, masks or whole event are. So, instead, I have photos of several of the floats, battles, and lots of the food and game stalls so you can be a bit stumped by it all too.

 A float battles with performers on stage.

 The parade was rather stop-start but the performers on the floats never stopped, they were so energetic all evening.

 Cute kids in traditional costume were everywhere.

 A battle between two floats. During the battle a crowd of people with lanterns would run between them cheering and making noise. At about this point me and Jessi got crushed - I've been in plenty of squashed crowds and stuff at festivals and gigs but never one like this consisting of mainly old people and people with babies.

Apart from the parade to watch, there were loads of food and game stalls, as I mentioned. Most of the games and some of the food was intended for the kids but, being gaijin, we were allowed to play some of the kids games and had some of the rules broken.

 These were Hello Kitty and Doraemon (the blue cat thing pictured) shaped sweets. He had a tub of batter he poured into the moulds, then it would cook (somehow), after which he'd open it up and pop them out. They were really tasty!

 Bananas dipped in chocolate and covered in hundreds and thousands. Not my cup of tea.

 Okonomiyaki being made

 Fish on a stick being cooked. I quite wanted to try this but I wasn't really sure how you'd eat it so I gave it a miss.

 I love the concentration this kid was giving to the bouncy balls swirling around in this game. I don't really know the aim (apart from to collect bouncy balls with the sieve he was holding) and we didn't stick around long enough to find out.

 Face masks.

 There were lots of these goldfish stalls. The kids were given paper spatulas - they had to scoop some or any goldfish they could into their bowl before the paper disintegrated. Any they caught, they kept.

 Bizarrely and, a little shockingly, tortoises were an alternative to catching goldfish.

 Jessi tried out this game, she was given a hook made from paper and had to try and hook out a balloon by a rubber band attached to them. Yep; the guy had to help her and she only managed to get one!

 This stall was selling shells and dried puffer fish. I love the googly eyes.

Although I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day (a combination of an early morning to get to lessons and all the walking we did that day) I'm so glad I went. It was fun to get outside of Tokyo where being gaijin was a bit more of a novelty. At one point Jessi and I sat at the side of the street because my feet were hurting and we'd lost everyone else. Sitting there for 20 minutes was some of the most fun people watching I've done. As we sat there, people walking past were completely unashamedly turning their heads to stare at us; middle aged guys were smiling and waving at us as they stared, guys were being hit by their girlfriends for looking over at us and little kids were gawping. When we decided to leave and were heading to the train station, I felt a tap on my shoulder - it was some drunk old salaryman saying (in Japanese), 'do you wanna drink with us?', which we politely declined.