Last night I met up with Nobue-chan and Kikko-chan to go to a local festival, Nobue-chan had promised me there would be ‘Japanese elegant ladies’ there, with their Yukata and Kimono, how could I resist?
I arrived at the wrong station where the exits were numbered A5, A6 and A7, with no indication of where to find A3 where we had arranged to meet. Once I got to surface everything made a little bit more sense, it was clear there was another station not far away so I walked toward that hoping to find A3. Kikko-chan had the same problem and arrived a couple of minutes after me.
Nobue-chan lead the way toward the shrine holding the festival, we encountered a parade of mikoshi on the way so took a little detour to watch them for a while. Kikko-chan was feeling a little odd just watching, she has, for many years, been involved in carrying mikoshi. Each block has one and they have teams of people to carry them, the team is around 20 people. They have writing on saying which temple or shrine they are associated with and the name of the block they originate from – those from the same temple have similar styles but are all different in their detail.
The parade stopped near the shrine, with the mikoshi being rested on trestles carried by a member of the team. There are many people involved, of all ages.
We walked down to the shrine itself, which seemed busy but not crowded, a little odd given it was the centre of the festival, I think it was running today too so maybe it’ll be busier today. On display next to the shrine itself (by which I mean next to what would be the ‘altar’ in a church, not sure what it would be called here…bearing in mind that it is outdoors) was the shrines mikoshi, a much larger and more ornate version of the neighbourhood ones.
Through the back door of the temple we found a series of market stalls making up the festival, selling little candy models and flavoured ice and beer and noodly food and all sorts of festivally things.
Onward, toward Asakusa, we found another parade, this one crossing a road, they had policemen directing traffic, who were giving roughly equal time to the parade and the traffic.
Along this road quite a lot of people had set up tables in their garages and invited their friends over to take part in the festival, kinda like a picnic but not really. And with lots of yakitori.
When we got to the temple at Asakusa, everything was quiet, all the shops had closed and everyone had gone home, very different to last time I was there with the
On the way back toward the restaurant area we found a series of those wooden models with cutout faces (what are they called? Like those you see at the seaside…), so I pursuaded the girls to have a go so I could take their picture. There seemed to be a remarkable number of these cutouts around, in London they wouldn’t last a night, something neither Nobue-chan or Kikko-chan could understand – “but they’re too big where would you put it?”, which isn’t really the point, its a trophy of a decent night out and if its too big to fit inside you just leave it outside for the next people to take.
Down a little staircase into a restuarant we found Shabushabu, I was a little worried by the way the whole place went quiet when I walked in (I suspect it was actually reasonably quiet before), they sat us around the corner where I wouldn’t distress too many people, and I was a little unnerved by the old couple next to us.
Shabushabu is thinly sliced beef you cook in a pot of boiling water/stock in front of you, I’ve not had this before which is a shame because I quite like it, but equally it isn’t something I would have figured out without being shown it.
After a little while the old couple started talking to us, they turned out to be really nice, even though I didn’t understand anything they said, it seems they had travelled quite a lot and were frequenters of Monaco, among other places, but that was their favorite. I just wish I understood more of what they were saying.
Then it was time for coffee, Nobue-chan lead us apparently randomly through the jumbled streets to a little dutch coffee house she knows, where we got a window seat and good coffee.
We decided that we could go on to Ueno to take a walk around the park, in the darkness we found a few rows of stone lanterns, then down some really awkward steps (they were batched in twos with a long step between, no chance for a rhythm) to the pondo (they didn’t think you could call it a lake, but I don’t see why not)
In the centre of the pond is another shrine, this surrounded by monuments to many things, there is a monument to beer, one to music, and one to a pair of glasses (!?), and many others too.
Walking back to the station we found a bonsai show, long rows of tents containing trees covered with flowers.
And then it was time to go home. And time to say goodbye to Nobue-chan. I hope to see her again, maybe if she visits europe, or if I come here again. I hope Kikko-chan is going to take me for a day out next saturday, if we can get it organised.
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