This is a matsuri that was taking place in front of Ookayama station, this is the area that I do my grocery shopping, etc. It's the closest little suburb to my dorm.
So I thought they carried the shrine through the town all day, but I guess thanks to modern inventions such as pickup trucks, they can cheat.
These fellows were just being goofy and dancing around (the matsuri's seem kind of like college football gamedays - an excuse to drink heavily during the day!) But I was taking their picture when I noticed the man in the white hat..
Later that day we stumbled upon a decent sized little city about 20 or so minutes walk from my dorm - Jiyugaoka! Jiyugaoka is not nearly as famous a shopping district as Shibuya or Ginza but it's no small town. We were just exploring the area, but there were many shopping streets with clothing stores (there was a gap and some British stores), shoe stores, cafes, bookshops, you name it. We even went into a store where not only did they sell purse sized puppies, they also sold entire outfits for your teeny tiny puppy. But more on that later.. I just wanted to post more pictures of the Matsuri's that happened almost everywhere this past weekend. The trend seems to be that when you participate in carrying a shrine, you're exempt from wearing pants.
Taking a breather, drinking their juiceboxes, gotta stay hydrated!
These fellas were quite the characters. And by that I mean drunk. We walked past them when we heard them trying to practice their Engrish. They asked us where we were from, and because all foreigners in Japan must be celebrities elsewhere they loved us! They wanted us to take a picture so we did. And then they decided that in order to truly capture the moment we should dress alike, so we did. At least they were wearing pants. I think that was the only thing we were worried about, because it didn't occur to us that carrying a shrine and drinking and being in the hot sun all day makes for nasty sweaty men. (You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now..)
After we took the picture, we were handing back the clothes and headbands when the men decided that we should keep the headband. Omiyage is basically a present, or a keepsake. They kept telling us that the headbands were for us to keep. It was the nicest thing! When you unfold the headband it says the name of the city and the temple of the shrine, along with the year. It's a great memento for me to remember my year here! My only complaint is that the one that I was handed was wet. Practically dripping with sweat. In fact I'm pretty sure the guy wiped his forehead with it before handing it to me. I don't know why I keep having to deal with sweaty Japanese people.. but that's definitely getting washed.
These fellas were quite the characters. And by that I mean drunk. We walked past them when we heard them trying to practice their Engrish. They asked us where we were from, and because all foreigners in Japan must be celebrities elsewhere they loved us! They wanted us to take a picture so we did. And then they decided that in order to truly capture the moment we should dress alike, so we did. At least they were wearing pants. I think that was the only thing we were worried about, because it didn't occur to us that carrying a shrine and drinking and being in the hot sun all day makes for nasty sweaty men. (You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now..)
After we took the picture, we were handing back the clothes and headbands when the men decided that we should keep the headband. Omiyage is basically a present, or a keepsake. They kept telling us that the headbands were for us to keep. It was the nicest thing! When you unfold the headband it says the name of the city and the temple of the shrine, along with the year. It's a great memento for me to remember my year here! My only complaint is that the one that I was handed was wet. Practically dripping with sweat. In fact I'm pretty sure the guy wiped his forehead with it before handing it to me. I don't know why I keep having to deal with sweaty Japanese people.. but that's definitely getting washed.
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