Matsuri Holla

Ok I tried to post this before and Safari crapped out therefore I am Pissed and will re-write the ENTIRE thing again.

Ok so Erik and Ricardo left and left me alone in my apartment again. But then I remembered that it is Summer Matsuri Season 夏祭!!!!! The first matsuri I had gone to was Gion Matsuri 祇園祭 located in Kyoto. I went with Troy and Yoshie at about 9 am and we parked ourselves at Kawaramachisanjo河原町三条 and we watched the Parade Begin. The parade consisted of Large Hoko 鉾 and Small Yama 山, and Ironically the parade was called Yamaboko 山鉾. We got were there for about 4 hours and enjoyed watching the parade
The parade was to ensure that Kyoto would not be striken with plauges, pestilance, etc. This Parade is as old as Kyoto itself, which my friend is about 1200 years, Yes, Old. It was raining heavily that day so it wasn’t crowded to are benefit. But we did get a Glimpse at some Maiko 舞子 (apprentice Geisha 芸者)

you can see a picture here

The next festival I had gone to was called Jonangureisai 城南宮例祭 and I went with Masa, whom Yohei introduced me to when we went camping. The Festival was located in the Takeda 竹田 section of Kyoto, which was very hard to get to. Also we only went to this festival because the Toilet Matsuri 手洗祭 looked boring and the Fushimi Inari Festival 本山祭 was on another day It was also raining but the atmosphere was one of partying. We had some beers and food, then proceeded to the main event. The Miko 巫女 danced for the gods and then we enjoyed some holy sake. It was a nice day, and we even saw some holy Ice Cubes. Seriously, the ice cubes had prayer cards, paper and tree branches which are considered very holy here.

Holy Ice

The Next festival was Tenjin Matsuri 天神祭, I posted already in my “No Internet” post about it so I wont continue about it. But you can get Troy and Kate’s perspective by going to the left and clicking on “Troy in Japan” But I will post the pictures so you can get a glimpse of the atmosphere, I dont think you can actually understand the amount of People located there unless you were there, or if you watched the movie Selena and remember the scene where the fans rush the stage in mexico crushing people, well it was the same feeling and I was thinking of that movie as we were in the midst of the crowd.

There were Thosands of these things, people and food stands

A cool play done in the middle of the Yodo River 淀川