Towada Kunizakai Festival 2007
So K and I went to another festival last weekend, it’s called the Kunizakai matsuri (festival) up at Lake Towada. We went up there in January for a Snow and Ice festival. It’s a really pretty area, especially during the summer months, that’s when the town comes to life.
We went to the shrine again first thing when we got there. It’s very tranquil, and this time they had the path up to the kuma jinja (bear shrine) at the top of the big hill behind the main shrine. What a hike, it was steep but thankfully they had ropes strung between trees to help with the climb up. At the top there was a pretty view of the lake, and a bear cave, hence why the shrine is up there. On one of the rock faces there, people had stuck a whole bunch of coins in fissures of the wall.
Next we went and wandered around and found some food to eat. I had some grilled ika (squid) on a stick, tempura chicken, and corn on the cob, it was yummy. ^^ The ika was fun, cause it’s already cooked when you get to the booth, but they heat it up on the grill and slather it in a sauce, and grill it some more.
The dancers and drum and instrument guys were fun, and when it got dark out they brought out the light up floats kinda like at the Nabuta festival, but some regional ones. Apparently the kunizakai has a traditional light up float that is shaped like a giant fan. And the highlight was these huge frames with 6 lanterns on a row and 4 rows of’em with candles in them. And they started out with a couple people carrying it, but they hand it off to a single guy to hoist upright, and then he balances it on his head for a minute or so and then they add a segment of pole and then balance it again. The point is to put as many poles on it as they can and balance it as long as they can without it falling down. They had 3 lantern things going and one of the lanterns fell down, and most of the candles blew out. It was pretty funny, cause when it started leaning everyone in the crowd started going ohhh, ahhh, oooo, and a big awww when it fell over.
We’re proly gonna head back to Towada in a month or so and take a stroll in the gorge when the leave start changing color. Should be really pretty, apparently there are several waterfalls along the trail that are really gorgous.
Dude making my ika (squid)
The lanterns being balanced.
The kuma (bear) shrine.
The tale of the kuma shrine.