Za7 Blog

I went to visit a friend in Chichibu on Sunday. Chichibu is a small mountain town outside of Tokyo. Here is a map showing how to get to Chichibu from Tokyo. My friend also trades the Forex so we had lots to talk about. We also got to enjoy the very special festival that only happens in this little town. It is called the Yomatsuri. It is a night festival with lots of fireworks and traditional dancing. During the festival they bring out these huge carts and roll them through town. I was there during the daytime and a day in advance to the main festivities so that is why it is not as crowded. But we were lucky to see a few of the carts, or floats.

Here is a picture of a couple rows of people, this one has mostly girls pulling the float. The float is extremely heavy and durable. They are also very old, some of these carts are a few hundred years old, but most look newer than that and are well taken care of because they are considered treasures of the town.

Here is a closeup of one of the floats passing by. You have to be in high standing to ride on a float. Can you see the guys sitting on the top? Its very scary to me, because the float will tilt when it turns, I guess they are used to it.

Here is the final destination of the floats, they arrive at the main shrine in the city of the town. Here they park and show off while the cart riders make lots of noise to proclaim their cart as the best. In the center of the picture is a stage where some people gather to do some traditional dancing routines. Again, very special because its only done once a year by expert dancers.

This is my favorite picture. I got right in front of the last float to bring you this picture. It is very rare to be able to get this close too. I could reach out and touch it. Inside this float rides a group of Kabuki performers. As you can see, some of them are children too, and a bit sleepy as well. Can you see the detail in their makeup and the traditional kimonos? It is of high attention and care that they present themselves on this day.

I wasn’t going to stay until the final night. Actually, as I write this, the big party is happening right now. This is the first time I went and it is well known to be extremely crowded and loud. I get that everyday in Tokyo, so I wasn’t looking forward to it. But during the day is a great time to take pictures, so it was better for me this way. Also, the weather was incredible, warm and sunny all day. The locals say that every year there is lots of snow during this festival. However, it was sunny and warm this year, and snow is not falling like it used to. I wonder if this is global warming starting?

I hope you enjoy the pictures and please leave a comment if you are interested in knowing more. I recommend attending the celebration next year, the people are very friendly, the food is fantastic, and its very cheap to visit here. My friend and I had a great time. If you would like to know more, check out this Japan Guide page too.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Relevant Matters, Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.