Shikoku - Festival Performance

Another beautiful sunny ridiculously hot day in Shikoku!
Today the Kono-family took us to Shikoku-mura which is a 'village' with lots of old preserved buildings. We didn't have a lot of time, so just had a bit of a wander around, although a couple of people motored up the hill to the waterfall.
We crossed a rickety swing bridge which looked like it was made from twigs! (Kono-san had said to me that you can't walk on it.....but when I saw other people crossing I decided to cross too. I asked him why he'd told me that and he said it's safe to walk on but he thought that I would be too scared!) ...actually quite true.
We saw - hornets (japan has very big insects!), a very tall fire watch pole, tea house, boat house, and watched the pretty windchimes blowing in the breeze with the bamboo.
For lunch - Udon!!
For snack - mango icecream :9

Then .... the big one. First Wai Taiko Performance in Japan!!
We were even advertised on the poster - for the Miroku Summer Festival!
Many thanks to the very generous Asankyo team who lent us their drums to perform on.
It was rather nerve wracking.....especially when we were told that not many people would be there as it was so hot that most would come later for the fireworks, but then when we looked out there was a BIG crowd (I guess a 'few' people in Japan means a few hundred)....
But our performance went really well :)
We then enjoyed watching the other performances - Japanese hiphop dancers, some very cute kids dressed as mushrooms, and Asankyo! Later we wandered up the hill to check out the stalls on the way to the ultimate viewing place - somehow Asankyo had moved their massive Odaiko up onto a platform and they drummed while the fireworks display went on. This was a MASSIVE feat as the fireworks went on for about half an hour!

A wonderful day and excellent start for our Japan performances :)