いごもり祭 Igomori Festival

For those of you who are faithful readers of this blog you will remember my post from last year about the Igomori Festival (see January 2007 archive). Well, this year I went again to the festival and it was just as firey as last year. This is the festival that began more than 1,000 years ago to scare off an evil spirit that was haunting the local Hahasono woods.

What they do is light a huge bamboo torch on fire and haul it around the neighborhood to scare off the spirit and thus insure a good crop for the year. The torch is about 3-4 meters (12 ft) in height, really big in girth and weighs a lot. They light a big fire inside of the shrine building with flames licking the ceiling yet somehow not burning down the whole thing. Then they stick the torch on the fire and get one end burning real good. After it is sufficiently on fire about 6 men haul the torch about 3 km around the neighborhood in the dark.

It is pretty amazing to watch. This year I followed the torch around the neighborhood for a while. It was pretty funny because they would get to a stop light and wait for it to turn green. Since the festival isn’t very well known I can only image the shock of the people in cars that happened to see 6 men in all white robes carrying a humongous burning torch down the street in the middle of winter. This year I just brought my little digital camera so the photos I got might not be such great quality. I don’t like to use the flash as it just ruins the night time eerie feel, but no flash often comes out blurry. Here are the best photos I could get.

（日本語版はちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

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せいか祭り２００７ The 2007 Seika Festival

去年と同じように僕と同僚のクリスさんがせいかグローバルネットのブースでせいか祭りを過ごしました。ニコニコ笑顔で子どもたちとふれあったり、風船を渡したり、していたので、とても楽しかったです。せいかグローバルネットの４人のメンバーとクリスが１２月に精華町の姉妹都市ノーマン市に訪問するので、子どもたちがノーマン市の人々への一言メッセジーを書いてもらいました。

This year my coworker Chris and I spent the day of the Seika Festival helping out at the Seika Global Network booth. It was fun because we got to interact with the kids and give out balloons. In December, four members of the Seika Global Network and Chris are going to be taking a trip to Seika’s sister city of Norman, Oklahoma, so at the festival we asked the kids of Seika to write short messages which would be presented to the people of Norman.

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そして、去年雨のせいで中止になったパレードが今年予定どおりに行いました。僕らもせいかグローバルネットのパレード団体と一緒に参加しました。ショッキングピンクの布に飾られたり、多彩な風船を運んだり、Bee Geesの”Dancing Queen”という曲が流れながら行進しました。その姿はちょっと恥かしかったが、皆さんのあたたかい挨拶のおかげで、結局面白かったです。

Last year due to the rain the parade was unfortunately canceled, but this year it was carried out on schedule. So we were able to join in the Seika Global Network’s parade troupe this year. It was a little embarrassing to be draped in flowing robes of shocking pink, carrying colorful balloons while they blared the Bee Gees “Dancing Queen” out of a loud speaker, but thanks to the warm greetings of all the people watching it turned out to be an interesting experience.
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２００７年度精華町こども祭り 2007 Seika Town Children’s Festival

１０月２０日（土）毎年行っているこども祭りがむくのきセンターでありました。子供のためのイベントで、色々な楽しみがありました。保育所・小学校・中学校の音楽団体がそれぞれ開会式で発表したし、料理教室やブーメラン作りなどがあったし、精華町の子供はすごく楽しい一日を過ごせました。僕はせいかグロバールネットと一緒にスタッフとして参加しました。外国の習慣と遊びを体験させたかったからハロウィーン・マスク（仮面）の製作と”Pin the Tail on the Donkey” （ロバに尻尾をつけよう！）というゲームなどをしました。仮面作りが一番人気な行動で、子供達はすごく面白い仮面が出来ました。今年僕はこども祭り二回目で、去年から殆どの小学校に行っているから、子供達が僕のことを知っているので、挨拶しにきてくれて、楽しかったです。

On Saturday October 20th the annual Seika Town Children’s Festival was held at Mukunoki Center. The event is for children so there was lots of fun activities. Musical groups from local nursery schools, elementary and junior high schools performed at the opening ceremony, there was a cooking class, boomerang making and other activities so the children had a really fun day. I also participated as a staff member with the Seika Global Network. We wanted to show the kids foreign customs and games so we set up a corner where the kids could make Halloween masks and play ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. The mask making was the most popular and the kids made some really great masks. This was the second year that I helped out at the Children’s Festival and since I have been going to the elementary schools in town it was more fun this year because I knew a lot of the kids and they all came and said hi to me.

Summer in Japan

Being that it's the middle of July and super hot here in Kyoto it would seem obvious that it's already summer, but to me I only really know its summer in Japan when the festivals start. Recently I went to the Tanabata Festival in neighboring Kizugawa City.

To me it really feels like summer when I can go to a festival where the streets are lined with vendors selling all sorts of typical Japanese foods like, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, karage and other such treats. The day of the festival was pretty hot and humid and with so many people packed into the streets it only increased the heat. But its so nice to walk down the rows of food vendors smelling the different foods and maybe drinking a cold beer. The best part of the whole thing is that most of the young children were dressed up in colorful yukata (a light summer version of the traditional kimono). At the festival there were large decorations were people had written down their wishes for the future (see above picture), one such wish was for world peace.

With the smell of grilled foods and tons of people out creating a lively atmosphere it really made me realize how much fun summer in Japan can be despite the oppresive humidity.