Day 5: Osaka Tenjin Matsuri Festival

My grandmother told me to do things authentically Japanese, well it doesn't get more authentic than a Matsuri festival. Matsuris are local festivals held by a temple or shrine. This one was put on by a Buddhist temple. The festival started at 4 pm, with a parade of people in costume, banging drums, singing, dancing, carrying the gods (?), playing dragons, among other things.

The procession wound through the city for two hours, until it came to the Okawa river, where the parade boarded boats. At another location, worshipers boarded other boats, which were going the opposite direction so they would meet at two points in the loop. There are over 100 boats all together. At 7:30 there were fireworks on the water while the boats are making their voyage. Later, the festival turns much more ritualistic, with a birthday celebration to Sugawara Michizane taking place on the river. At 10 pm everyone gets off the boats and heads back to the temple where the parade started, there there is another ritual to welcome the return of the divine spirits. And a ceremony. The festival is two days long, but apparently thetime to go is the second day, because this is when the fireworks are. And boy do people come!

We took advantage of the guest services this morning and got great directions on how to get to the temple. We got to ride the subway for the first time today, another plus with the rail pass. However, they did tell us the wrong time. She said it started at 2, when it really started at 4. Our directions were so good that we got to Osaka at 1pm, we gave ourselves a lot of time in case we got lost. So we had 3 hours of time to waste before the festivities even began.

more train station photos:




The streets of Osaka were crowded and it was 80 degrees with 70% humidity today. We spent a lot of time wondering the streets close to the temple. There were a lot of littlekiosks set up along the streets selling all sorts of goodies, souvenirs, and some odd games. We tried some new foods here.









We tried these little bolls of carbs. They looked better than they were, honestly, the best part was watching them be made




Many groups of participants were going to the temple, you could see people dressed up every where you went. This group were carrying some gold omikoshi with them. This is supposed to house the neighborhood god. They got every one's attention by dancing in the intersection.

They also had two random white guys in the group










uh, totally not to US health code, okay




I'm sure these goldfish have some meaning for this festival


what better way to remember the matsuri festival than with this thing?


fruit on a stick was big here


I probably should have purchased this shirt, it was only 500 yen


the temple












weird game, I'm not sure if you get to keep the eel if you catch it








Some of the people heading to the temple






these guys were very excited to get a picture with us








Finally, at 4pm things started to happen. We couldn't get a good view of the start of the parade from the temple, but we found a great vantage point a little bit down the route. We stayed here for an hour, and still not everyone had passed. At this point we decided to head for the river to scout out of vantage point.

View from the temple (Aren held the camera up in the air to take this photo)


There were a lot of aspects of this festival that wouldn't have flown in the US. For example, there were no barricades on the parade route, just people trying to keep people back. They also kept the streets open until just before the parade started and had security guards, not police, keeping the peace







































watch out! behind you!












the smallest ones were by far the cutest





















Oh noes, footclan!






<img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/silverbeam/japan/IMG_7825.jpg">



We hung out at a bridge on the river for another hour. The bridge we were on was the one where all of the worshipers were getting on the boats, but not the parade. We took advantage of the ledge and sat, a great break for the day.



for the record, Aren got in the same position to take a photo of this Japanese man






A guard came and tried to explain something to us. Using mostly gestures and pointing at the map he was able to tell us that if we wanted to see the fireworks we should move down river to another bridge. It was about 6 at this time, and the fireworks started at 7:30. In any case, we started making the trip.

Along the way to the other bridge we got dinner. I had this amazing rice porridge with veggies, chicken and egg. Simple but SOOO good. And for the first time in our trip Aren modified a meal. He's getting pretty good at his chicken related Japanese.



The Entertainer




When we emerged from the train station we got dinner at (we eat a lot in train stations here) the place had changed quite a bit. Everything was completely packed. It was about 7:15 now and we felt like salmon in the middle of the annual run up river. We were packed so tightly on the streets. We followed the crowd, but soon realized that getting to the trains at the same time as the crowd was not worth the fireworks. We took an early leave, before the show started and started our way to the closest JR station. We caught some of the fireworks on the way, and were glad we made our leave. US fireworks > Japanese fireworks.







It would have been nice to stay for the whole event, but there were literally millions of people there, and we were both tired and sweaty. The rapid subway and train service were such a God sent. We got back to the hotel in maybe 1/2 an hour. All I wanted to do was lay down on the bed and just rest my feet. It was a very busy day.

Darn that blue water!


Officially the first alcohol vending machine on the street


we passed by Osaka Castle on our way to the station




bragging a little?


stupid clock, the lights strobed. But everything in this country is total sensory overload


Ah yes, back to the hotel room and our awesome view: