Izushi matsuri

Yesterday was a national holiday, so I was taken to see a festival in Izushi, about a 2 hour car drive north of Himeji in Hyogo prefecture.

Can you believe it was snowing on the mountains?

It was a cold day!

Our first stop was at a tea house for a traditional refreshment.

I chose green tea

With Mika in the tea house gardens


With the onset of cold weather,
the leaves are starting to turn

We saw the children's parade first


The boys imitate the ritual with small poles


Girls in costume


Boys in costume


A photo op!


Scary cute

The view of the town from the castle grounds

It has 37 torii gates leading to the castle

The town is famous for its sarasoba dish - this is 5 small dishes of buckwheat noodles which you dip in a mix of raw egg, cold soup stock, grated sticky potato, grated radish and spring onions.

Advertisements for sarasoba were everywhere


Unfortunately I passed on the cold, raw egg noodle delight
and had a hot noodle dish with cooked egg instead


The men parade -


The whole ritual involves the passing of tall poles
fitted with various feathered heads


The leader claps two wooden blocks


Preparing to catch the poles


Traditional footwear

Watch the pole throwing here (25 secs)

There was also a display of bottle cap art


Recycling at its best


The unveiling of the bottle cap mural. Impressive!

The day ended with a competition (!) where 3000 rice balls wrapped and tied in a plastic bag were thrown into the gathered crowd by the town's governing council members standing on a scaffold. Your prize was determined by the colour of the tag on the bag.

One managed to land directly in my outstretched hand, but those quick enough to scrounge the ones that landed on the ground and surge through the crowd to catch them picked up prizes such as cartons of beer and packets of noodles.

It was a great way to spend Japan's culture day holiday.

Until next festival,
Monica