I went to a total of 3 festivals during this long weekend, one per day, and they were all weirdly and wonderfully different from each other! Lovin' it.
Festival No. 1 - The Johzenji Street Jazz Festival in Sendai
Over 700 acts performing on 40-odd stages, big and small, dotted around the whole of the city centre, and not just jazz, but rock, indie, R&B, acoustic, spanish guitar, blues, alternative, gospel, country, folk...it was more like a live music festival. And of course, being a Japanese festival, it was all very well organised, everything was very orderly, lots of volunteers, free maps and guides, free shuttle buses, and best of all, the whole thing was free!
And of course, being a Japanese festival, it had to have the usual festival food - Okonomiyaki (photo), tako-yaki, yaki-soba, yaki-tori, yaki-niku...and beer.Festival No. 2 - The Full Moon Festival 満月祭り @ Iritono 入遠野
More festival food, lanterns dotted along the way into this remote town in the hills (the name of the town literally means 'Entering the far fields'..haha)
There was koto playing (photo), as well as the japanese flute, craft stalls, and 20 minutes of bucketing-down rain as if someone held Niagra falls above this hill town for about half an hour. Fun nonetheless. At least it cleared the sky to make the moon shine brightly ever after.
Festival No. 3 - The Horseback Archery @ Iino Hachimangu
This was at a shrine near the city centre, and a couple of men put on the whole set of traditional clothing, which was pretty cool to see since it's probably hundreds of years old. At one point I was also slightly awestruck at how hundreds or thousands of years ago people have been doing this, and here we are, in the 21st century, continuing this little historic tradition. On the car on the way back, someone aptly said how Japan is a country of contradictions - in a way its so far forward compared to the rest of the world, yet on the other its modern day culture is rich with its past, and then there are many backward things that just wouldn't be found in any 3rd world country.
The most suitable analogy for Japan is probably their toilets. At one end its literally nothing but a whole in the ground, whilst on the other there are toilets that talk to you and wash your behind at a push of a button, heck it might even make morning coffee and read you your emails.
This place offers so much to fascinate over. I feel it's going to take quite a while to bore me. Might as well - it's not like I'm going to get a job given the current global economic circumstances!
1 comment:
JEALOUS! Looks absolutely amazing- the festivals seem so cool and interesting. I totally have to come to Japan sometime!
Interesting about the backwards and "forwards"-ness of Japan. Most of England's traditions have become pretty warped these days anyway!
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