Festival

Today is a national holiday here (when I asked what the holiday was, I was told “in respect for aged persons”). Of course, this means there have been festivals in various cities all weekend. The one I went to was a little different than the last one here in Omiya. Instead of people carrying around a portable temple, this was a large covered float on wheels. The musicians and little kids rode inside, while the older boys provided propulsion and girls did some sort of fan dance alongside. The cool part was that the float and the first half dozen pullers were all draped in the same piece of fabric that all led to the lion’s head “mask” that was leading the whole thing.







The carts are on wheels and have a motor of sorts. So all the helpers really have to do on a flat street is guide it along. But their turning radius is pathetic, and apparently brakes are completely optional. It took at least a dozen guys throwing all their weight against the cart before it stopped on a relatively shallow downhill.

But dancing lion heads and oodles of people in yellow spider-man jammies still don’t beat naked butt-cheeks.