Matsuri

First full day in Tokyo after arriving last night. My conference at Aoyama University is tomorrow, so today was a free day. My host took my sightseeing. The most interesting thing we did was go to the town of Hiratsuka (平塚), in Shōnan (湘南). It's well south of the city, from Yokohama another 35 minutes by express train. The reason we went is for the Tanabata Festival (七夕まつり). The holiday is sometimes called the Chinese "Valentine's Day" -- on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, it is said, the two lovers, cowherd and weaver girl, are able to meet for just the one day of each year. (I know this story well because it was the subject of one my second-year Chinese texts. If you want to know details, the Wikipedia entry is a good start.

The Japanese have moved things over to the solar calendar, meaning the festival is July 7. But I think because of the practicalities of holding it on the weekend, the actual festival dates in Hiratsuku this year are July 1-4. My host says that Hiratsuku is the third-largest Tanabata Festival in Japan.

I didn't really understand what we were doing until we arrived, after about an hour's journey from Tokyo, at the Hiratsuku train station.  All the gates where you normally pay to leave the station were flung open to accommodate the crowds.  This sign greeted us as we walked down the stairs toward the exit:

People were handing out fans with advertisements on them just outside the station.  The weather wasn't too hot, but it was humid, and the fan was useful.

There was so much going on I was nearly overwhelmed with excitement.  In some ways it was no different than any big-city street fair in the States.  The streets were closed to traffic. Lots of people walking around, lots of stalls selling food, lots of banners and decorations and entertainment.  But it was all different enough from anything I'd seen before that I wanted to try to capture it all.

There are a lot of pictures here (apologies for the length of the post).  I'll just lay them all out with minimal commentary.

The decorations over the street were a mix of traditional elements, representations of fairy tales (like that of Kintarō, below), and modern merchandising (quite a lot of Disney).

Many people were dressed up in traditional Japanese clothing, especially the children.

Cinderella:

More traditional decorations:

This is, I'm told, a traditional element of this festival: writing your wishes on a piece of paper and hanging it up.

Here's a wish to become a schoolteacher:

And one to become a world-class karate competitor:

And to find a boyfriend:

Here are some kids learning how to write their wishes:

There were lots of cute children around, but not nearly as many as you'd find at a similar kid-friendly weekend event in the States.  I suppose this is a reflection of the low birth rate and aging population in Japan.

What's this guy selling?

Oh, of course: "spice pasta".

Various kinds of nikumaki (meat-wrappd rice balls); the middle one has cheese on it.

I don't know what kind of fish this is, but the display has a striking appearance.

Various kinds of candied bananas:

You can click through to the bigger image and try yourself to figure what these are made of:

Little baby turtles on sale (as pets, I believe):

Ichiro for Kirin Beer:

This claims to be Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is really overstuffed compared to the kind I had in Matsuyama.

Very, very few foreigners around.  My host said that just looking at most of the people, they seemed to be local.  He didn't think there were many Japanese tourists.

I liked the looks of this gaikokujin gent:

These kids were adorable in their masks:

Especially when they struck fighting poses:

As you can see from the coloration of the sign, these are American-style hamburgers:

I was really intrigued by this sign.  On the left, the name of the town: Hiratsuka.  On the right, the name of the festival: Tanabata.  On the bottom: Brasil.

According to my host, there is a large, long-standing Brazilian community here.

And they are writing in a mix of Japanese and Portuguese:

Our one indulgence: some takoyaki (fried octopus balls):

You can see scenes of takoyaki being made in the move I'll post in the next blog entry.

Finally, a picture my host thought I should take, of a license plate.  Why?  He says that Shōnan, where Hiratsuka is located, is a surfing mecca, and it's acquired such cachet among young people that the license plates are in high demand because of their coolness factor.  I guess it's roughly analogous to having "Malibu" on your license plate.