Summer Festival in Asaka

One of the nice things about living in Asaka is the continuing traditional culture. Every Summer the small town of Asaka, like many other towns across the islands of Japan close off several city blocks for a weekend festival.

As with any activity in Japan, it's good to dress appropriately. Traditional Summer wear. Some girls wear light, colorful yukata robes while many guys wear the pajama-like jimbe which consists of thin cotton knee shorts and a matching tunic, simple patterns and colors, often with ventilated shoulders, worn with flip-flops or wooden sandals (no thank you).

So my son and I toss on our jimbes, grab non-folding fans and with wife and mother-in-law head out to the festival.

Its only a five minute walk to the beginning of the crowds. Rows and rows of booths for food, drink, games and wares. Some of the more common offerings are (in order of my preference):

Buttered potatos
Pan-fried noodles with vegetables and meat yakisoba
Battered octopus balls takoyaki
Snow cones with dozens of flavors
Beer
Sausage on a stick
Okonomiyaki (a hearty, pancake-like food)
Fried chicken
Beer
Cotton candy
Punch in a bag
Bits of meat on a stick yakitori
Pineapple on a stick
Bananas sticked and dipped in something that looks like chocolate, but nearly tasteless
Candied plums
Candied apples
Iced fruits

Did I memtion beer?

The non-consumables:
Catch-your-own goldfish
Catch-your-own superballs (floating in little circular stream tanks)
Lotteries
Games of chance
Pop gun shooting galleries
Durable water balloons on little bungees
Water whistles topped with pokemon
Electric light-up fans
Fortune tellers
A small flea market and a bazaar

Am I forgetting anything?

One guy always brings a mini front-hoe and fills his fishing boat with water and toys. Even if you don't manage to scoop one up hey, you got to play with a front-hoe! How cool is that?

That's the menu. I hope it gives a good flavor of atmosphere.

So when we get into the main throng of the crowd, my four year old son starts getting canyoned-in by all the tightly-packed people. I pop him up on my shoulders and we push on.
Even into the late hours after everyone has consumed great amounts of beer, the crowd never gets beligerent or unrully. No more than a dozen or more police on hand. That's another nice thing about Japan. Anything more than harsh words is seldom seen.

All day, the main streets were busy with parades of traditional syncronized dancers, as well as drummers, musicians and a gigantic shrine carried on the shoulders of twenty or so people.

It was great to see some of our students and customers out there, or rather to be seen by them. Big hairy white guys are easy to spot at these festivals, no matter how crowded it gets.

After enough watching, playing, eating, drinking and pushing through the crowds it was time for the fireworks. The Japanese really do their fireworks well, and they go on relentlessly for nearly an hour, but it's odd for me as an American, to watch them without Sousa, Elvis or Garth Brooks blairing along with it. Fortunately, it was a clear night with a full-moon. Everyone sat down along the sidewalks, curbs and streets. One of the neatest new sights to these fireworks shows is, as almost all cell phones have pic/video cameras, once the fireworks get up to speed, everyone flips up their phones for pictures and footage and you get this river of hundreds of little video screens cutting through the darkness on the ground. It was as interesting as the show.

Fireworks done and all of us worn out, we had to push our way back home. Washed our feet and asleep before our heads hit the futons.