Natsu Matsuri - Summer festivals at Hirugami

Each evening for the week we were at the workshop, there was a 'summer festival' just down the road from our ryokan. So each night we would go down and check it out, and dine on the yummy food you can buy from the stalls there.

Summer festival time is the time of Obon in Japan, which is a special celebration to honour your ancestors, as it is believed that the ancestors return to their family homes at that time to celebrate together with them. So many people go to visit their family temple and attend natsumatsuri in that area.

What happens at Natsumatsuri?

Each local festival is a little bit different but they all have the same kind of fun ambience. There are usually a lot of families and people wearing "yukata" (the cotton, summer kimono). And there are stalls selling all kinds of food - (for some reason often on a stick) eg. yakitori (chicken on a stick - very yummy), hot dog sausages on a stick, BBQ'd corn on the cob, cucumbers (on a stick), chocolate dipped bananas, toffee apples, candy floss, and my favourite summer treat - kakigoori. This is shaved ice with syrup, but you can get such great flavours. My number one flavour is Green Melon. Delicious.

Cucumber - on a stick

Apart from the wide range of food, there are also game stalls, some of these are similar to ones in other countries - hoop toss, shooting something to win a prize etc. But there are also waterballoon fishing (water balloons attached to string float in a paddling pool and you have to hook the string with a little fishing line).

and Goldfish scooping - there is a tub of little goldfish and with a little paper tub you have to scoop as many as you can. This is hard because the paper can easily break!

goldfish scooping

And then there is the entertainment!

At this festival they did the bonodori (the Obon dance). This is usually a dance specific to the region, although there are some versions which are popular all over Japan. For this there is a stage set up with ladies doing the dance, and everyone else dances around the stage. The dances are usually quite simple and are repeated over and over while the music (often taiko drums with a song) is played. It is so cool to see so many people doing it, including little kids who are just learning too :)

bonodori

One night we all went down in our ryokan yukata to do the dancing as well. It was lots of fun, but tiring as you repeat it so many times!

heading down in yukata

In between dances they had a taiko group performing who were amazing. It was still very hot and humid at night, but they were really energetic and even did split jumps and everything! It was really fun to watch them and they played different songs each time.

At the end of the evening there would be a fireworks display which was really huge. Then we would head back up the hill for a soak in the onsen and a long night sleep!