The festival's purpose is to petition the gods for a good harvest.
Each town had their own float, and they went down the street to gather in front of the station.
A video I took showing the Omikoshi (portable shrine, the god being entertained by the festival rides this) and teh Dashi (the entertainment, floats) leaving the station area.
A child wearing an Otamen mask was dancing.
There was also a lion dance (Shishimai) to the accompanyment of festival music. I think this is also to pray for a good harvest.
Oinarisama (a fox which is meant to be the incarnation of the god of grains) was dancing on one of the floats. I think this was also to pray for a good harvest.
The floats patrol the local streets after leaving the station area, but at this point Yosuke and I left to have lunch at a ramen restaurant.
Hiyashi Butashabu Tsukemen and sesame sauce. - basically a cooled noodle meal with pork where you dip the noodles etc ii the sauce before eating.
It was delicious and refreshing.
Next we headed to a local shrine Washinomiya jinja.
A short way before reaching our destination we came across some children practicing taiko druming for an upcoming festival this weekend.
When we reached the Washinomiya shrine carpark, there were a lot of Itasha (painful + car put together in 1 word, usedto refer to cars where the owner has plastered the paintwork with anime related charactors etc)
This possibly unusual mixture of a religious site and modern animation is due to the fact Washinomiya shrine was used in the setting for a very popular animation called "Lucky Star"
Of course I took pictures!
Left: Hatsune Miku Right: Hiiragi Kagami
The gate into the shrine grounds (Torii)
After entering the grounds and walking straight down, we came to the Ema (wooden tags with an image on 1 side and a wish/prayer on the other) that visitors had made. There were a lot of Ema with anime charactors on them.
There was a large ring in front of the main shrine called "Chi no Wa", and by passing through it in the correct way you can "purify" yourself before payer at the shrine.
As the kind man had told us, the Omikoshi returned.
After this we stopped of at yosuke's place again. After eating dinner and lazing about we missed the change over of the floats from dolls to lanterns.
Dinner - Gyuudon (beef cooked in a sauce and onions on top of a bowl of rice)
While we were watching the floats, a local fishmonger who'se shop we were standing outside, greeted us.
Apparently every year the curtains (which have been around since the 1800s) on the floats need some degree of repair and maintanance - which several local businesses - this fishmonger included - get together and pay for.
They een showed us their certificates for the contribution.
I have a plan to make fish and chips (a very british sort of thing) for Yosuke, and with this we decided we'd like to get the fish from this fishmonger.
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