Hamamatsu Kite Festival

On Monday May 3rd my friend Marie (Mah-ree-ay) and I headed to Hamamatsu to see their famous kite festival. It was Golden Week so it was packed. The line for the shuttle bus from the station to the festival was over an hour long and wound around two blocks! Marie is much more patient than I am and when I complained she just said, "It's Golden Week. You have to wait everywhere now." But it turned out to be worth the wait.

It was the perfect opportunity for people watching. Almost everyone was wearing hoppi - the jackets worn during festivals. Most people had the pants and split toe shoes on as well. And almost every girl I saw looked like she had been to the salon that morning to have her hair done. This is no small festival! It's really billed as the Hamamatsu Festival rather than the "Kite" festival per say but the kites really are the biggest draw. Even so we also saw some taiko drummers and nearer the station we saw some floats that I imagine are carried around town in much the same way they are in Tahara.

But we were there for the kites. They weren't battling that day but instead each neighborhood kite association would gather around one of their enormous paper kites. Each kite had the name of any new babies born in the last year emblazoned in the corner. Those same babies were hoisted up on the shoulders of one of the men and then a small band of elementary school children toting trumpets would play and the adults would cheer. It was really cool to see each group welcoming the new child to the community. And because Hamamatsu is a large city there were lots of bands and lots of babies and lots of kites.

Once the ritual welcome was performed then the kites were ready to fly. The wind wasn't being very cooperative at first but eventually the sky was filled with hand-painted paper kites. Marie tested my Japanese reading skills by making me translate the kanji (or hirigana) on each. After some festival food and a nice time watching the kites we stood in line again for the bus ride back to the station. We spent more time getting to the kite festival than we did at the kite festival!


Marie and I pose in hoppi.



These cute old ladies are taiko drummers. They were so nice to let me snap their picture.


Everyone was wearing their festival clothes.


They are big kites.


They took several people to move.


You can see the baby just under the flag. The adults are dancing around him.




There were bands of children everywhere playing their instruments.


Getting the kite ready to fly.


A view from a small hill.


These guys had a better vantage point though I think.

Ninja Festival

During the month of April every weekend in a small town called Iga-Uneo in Mie Prefecture hordes of people show up in ninja costumes hoping to practice their ninja skills. I had no idea this town existed and I certainly didn't know about the festival until I listened to the How Ninja Work episode of Stuff You Should Know. (Consequently if you are not subscribing to this podcast then you should be because it is awesome.) As soon as I became aware of this knowledge it became my mission to make it to the Ninja Festival in Iga.

I convinced my new friend Allison to join me. We met in Nagoya Station and then headed to Iga. It takes forever to get there. Because ninja were secret warriors their training centers were in the middle of nowhere. There are two areas in Japan known for their ninja training schools - one in Mie Prefecture (right next to Aichi where I live) and the other in Shikoku. We took three trains from Nagoya. The last one was a local train with a ninja theme painted on it. They even had some high school aged ninja reading off the stops.


The ninja train


In the train station. They were all over town though and honestly were a bit creepy.


When we finally arrived we were greeted by more ninja who gave us some mochi and if we could win at janken then we could have some sembei. My ninja kindly threw paper every time and let me play three times until I beat her and could get the sembei. Who said ninja aren't kind?


Adorable elementary school ninja!


After some wandering around we finally figured out what we were supposed to be doing - testing our ninja skills! For a small fee we got a piece of paper and a map. We went around town to different stations where they tested our skills. I sucked at most of them. But Allison was really good at throwing ninja stars. Remind me not to make her angry! There might have been some sort of prize at the end but we never did figure it out.


We had to blow out 10 candles with only 3 tries. Failed!


Throwing stars. Failed!


And shooting arrows. Also failed! I suck as a ninja. :-(


After lunch we headed to the ninja museum where we saw a ninja show and toured the ninja house and museum. In the show they showed several different weapons and methods of fighting. I was the most impressed with the way a ninja could fight a man with a sword with just a piece of long rope. The little boy sitting in front of us though seemed more interested in Allison and me than the ninja.


Demonstrating these scary looking weapons.


A fighting demonstration


Our new blue ninja friend.


The ninja house had lots of hiding places and secret places where they could see you but you couldn't see them. The museum portion explained that most ninja did not wear the bright blue or even black costumes we kept seeing around town but usually wore the clothing of a farmer so they could pass by unnoticed. The problem with a ninja costume is that then everyone knows you are a ninja!



A ninja house looks pretty normal.


But it has secret doors.


And secret hiding places.


Because Iga is so far away we couldn't stay as long as we wanted but had to catch the train back to Aichi. It took me over 3 hours one way but in the end it was definitely worth it.


Ninja Festival 2010!