A weekend of Festivals in Takehara, Yasuura and Kure

I just had a long weekend and had a good time attending a few festivals and dinners with friends. On Friday, Jeffery made his way up from Oita and we met up with a Rob, Vicki, Beth and Krissy. We went to a local Izakaya (bar and grill) for dinner then proceeded to a pretty cool whisky bar and then to our favorite bar in kure, Memories. We had a really good night, probably too good of a night as we stumbled back home around six in the morning when it was just getting light out. (Picture below: Temple at Takehara during the full moon)

The next day, we met up with a bunch of JETs for a birthday dinner, since I will be turning 24 this week. We went to this restaurant in Kazehaya, one stop away from Yassuura and had a great dinner at this restaurant overlooking the water. I went their with all teachers once and the food was great, so I’ve been meaning to come back. Once again the food was great and on that Saturday, it was also the night when the moon is closest to the earth, so we had a bright view of the moon during dinner.(Picture below: Jason, Jeffery and Me)

After dinner, we went to Takehara and saw the lantern festival there. I must say it was one of the best festivals I have been to in Japan, as it wasn’t crowded and didn’t have the typical food stands that most festivals have. Instead, since it is located in an old historical district, it had a lot of local mom and pop shops selling homemade foods. The whole district was lit up with bamboo lanterns and various light displays with candles, as Takehara is famous for bamboo. With the moon on the backdrop, it made walking around and seeing the different light arrangements fantastic.

We stayed for a good 2 hours and it was a really enjoyable festival. The city even hired performers to walking along the streets wearing kimonos and playing traditional Japanese instruments, like the shamisen and the koto. (Picture below: A bunch of my 1st to 3rd graders)

The next day, Jeffery and I went to Yasuura, the town I teach in and caught the local festival at one of my elementary schools. Yasuura town is split into 5 districts and I went to the Mitsuguchi district which is right by the water and only spanning a few blocks. It was fun seeing all my students dress up, including the whole elementary school and some of my junior high students. This long weekend is when all the autumn festivals take place and the this one consisted of a shrine that is suppose to resemble a boat being carried or pushed along the streets. Inside the boat were 4 of my elementary students chanting and playing the drums during the festival. There was a bigger “mikoshi” or shrine being pushed by the adults and a smaller one for the junior high and elementary students. The path to the shrine where they were too end up, took them through a number of narrow streets.
mitsuguchi fight
At certain times the boat would be rushed by the men dress in blue who were trying to push the “boat” back. The men in blue, represents the dangers in the sea, who rush the shrine carriers and the defenders end up beating the crap out of each other.The whole festival is suppose to represent the difficulties in the sea. It was a great festival and it was really fun to attend and to see a lot of my students outside of class. (Picture below: Vicki and Jackie carrying the Shrine after 4 hours)

After the festival in Mitsuguchi, we made our way to Kure and got a few of the female Kure JETs participated in one of the biggest festival of the year in Kure. The girls, Vicki, Krissy and Jacki where all dolled up in shorts and makeup and had to carry a shrine for about 6 hours all along the main streets of Kure. It was fun watching, knowing that I wasn’t performing it and seeing them heave the shrine up and down. I walked with them for a bit of the festival and I must commend them for all their hard work. (Picture below: Krissy, Vicki and Jacki looking great!)

The coolest part of the festival was seeing about a dozen “oni” or demons leading the processing of the shrine. When we hit the main street, the girls got to have a rest while the guys, being wrapped in these huge ropes and wearing yellow kimonos and a demon mask proceeded to run around in a set route then beat each other bamboo sticks. All in all, it was a really cool festival and a great weekend. I was pretty beat by the end of it, being out all 3 days, but I was glad to have caught all the festivals and had great weekend with friends.

Japanese factoid#32- The demons at the festival would not only wear their masks of varying different designs, their goal was also to scare the living crap out of little babies. Yes, parents would hand their babies to the people dressed up as demons and if they baby cried, it is considered good luck. So throughout the festival, tons of babies were given to these demons for taking pictures and to make them cry. I would be pretty freaked out too, if I guy holding a big bamboo stick and a crazy mask was staring at me when I’m a few months old.