Safety and strength

Every January in Himeji, the local fire and emergency department organise a display in the grounds of Himeji castle in order to restore the community's faith in emergency services.

Us


Big band marching


The contenders make their entrance...


...and set up their ladder and rope


Look, no hands


Ta-da!

Next was the emergency evacuation simulation

Getting into action...


...all in a matter of minutes


Aah, saved, and...


...fire extinguished


Mini but mighty

Yep, faith restored. It truly was an impressive display.

Until next time,
Monica x

Coming of Age

Some posts ago, I showed you a display of furisode in a shop window.

Long-sleeved kimono

Furisode is a special type of kimono with long sleeves that young, unmarried women wear, usually on seijin-no-hi - known as Coming of Age day. Last January, I was lucky to be passing the cultural centre in Himeji on this public holiday.

What's going on?

Gathered on the steps of the Culture Centre

The girls are immaculately dressed

These kimono are so expensive that they are usually rented or borrowed for the day. The girls said it took hours of preparation - including dress, hair, makeup and nails and most went to salons for professional assistance. They were trendy, gorgeous and happy to pose - despite the cold.

Cute is a fluffy shawl


The obi are fabulous -
and there's so many ways to tie them

The boys are in a traditional kimono too...


..but some just wore suits

It truly was a treat to see these young people dressed up in their mix of traditional and contemporary style, excited to be embarking the year as a fully-fledged adult in Japanese society.

Until next time,
Monica x

Aboshi Lantern Festival

On October 21st, I ventured to Aboshi, about 20 minutes from Himeji, to see this intriguing-sounding festival called the Lantern Festival. A festival of lanterns - what could that possibly entail?

It started with the parade of yatai...


...and flesh


The yatai lit up in the dark

Then we made our way to the shrine's entrance
to see the action.

It was hard to see close up what was happening - you can see from the photo above how far back we stood, but it seemed like 60 or so men carrying bamboo poles with lanterns attached to the top, jostling, circling and chanting. Watch the clip.

The round begins (15 secs)

Then, obviously on someone's say-so, the smashing began - lanterns were flying through the air and were being completely shredded. Then the whistle blew to stop the violent hammering of the lanterns and a new round began. Watch the clip.

Lantern flogging (28 secs)

Some of the lanterns were so painstakingly designed and painted, only to be hammered in seconds. The lanterns kept coming and the men kept smashing them. It lasted for hours. Watch for the man lantern with the dangly detail in the clip below. Brutal!

Someone spent a lot of time painting this one

Smash those lanterns!

Ready, setty, destroy! (46 secs)

In the meantime, we wandered around the food stalls (see earlier post - Festival Foods) and got to look at a yatai on display. It's an impressive structure.

Me, Taube and Taube's visitor
standing by the yatai

Huh, so that's what the festival is all about!

Until next post,
Monica

More Festival Food

Autumn is the season for harvest festivals, so I've been to quite a few over the past month. And festivals always attract numerous stalls offering all kinds of foody delights. Here's some more from the Lantern Festival.

BBQ corn and franks on a stick


Grilled squid on a stick


Savory pancakes in the making


The chocolate fountain


Choco bananas


Assorted skewers...


This one's skewered octopus


Grilled noodles


Octopus tendons in batter

Usually, there's aisles and aisles of food stalls to wander through so you can always find something to try. Personally I'm not a fan of the seafood offerings, but they're always interesting to look at.

Trawling the food stalls

Okay, so more about this spectacular Lantern Festival in my next post.

Until then,
Monica

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