Summer: Tis the season for some festivaling

Over the summer season I have attended numerous festivals. Each unique, but most tie together with one common factor, fireworks (and plenty of them).

The first festival I went to I was only perhaps three days or so into my Miyazaki stay. I hopped on a bus with another JET that I met earlier that day. She had only been in Miyazaki a week or so before me…..so we blindly used the public transportation system and headed to a spot near the coast. After a few bus transfers we found ourselves at a wonderful Flower and Lantern festival. The Ghostbusters theme song was rock’n the sound system as we entered.

some festival lanterns

red ones

pink ones

by twilight

hang'n out at the festival

Next, I traveled to Saito, which is a small town to the west of Miyazaki City. There are two JETs living in Saito and they hosted a party the same day that Saito was having it’s big festival. I got there by bus and it took about an hour. I arrived late and the town’s festival was wrapping up. Saito has one small main street and that is where the stage was set up. The street was lined with lanterns and booths . I made it in time to drink a beer, see a bit of singing, and consume a tasty dessert. I met up with the other JETs who were all squeezed into two studio-sized apartments where I tasted a specialty alcohol from Okinawa, it had a snake carcass inside the bottle. We took the party over to a local bar and partied it up with some local drunk’n yakuzas (gang members). Most of the bars around have a nomikai (which is all you can drink for one flat rate).

snack cake

snake juice

After that, I watched some fireworks in Miyazaki along the river.
(I have done this frequently, in fact. Recently, I saw a show with over 7,000 firework for respect on the Respect for the Aged holiday) It is hard to capture the true awsomeness on film though, so you'll have to settle for some non-captivating photos.

Then, I took a road trip with some fellow JETs to Cape Toi (the southernmost part of Miyazaki prefecture). This has been my favorite experience so far. I will write about the road trip later. Our purpose for traveling was to attend the Cape Toi Fire Festival. There was music and drumming until the sun fell. After the sun went down, a traditional dance was performed by the local kids. Next, came the fire-sling’n. A tall pole was erected that had a tree on top. The top of the pole was supposed to represent a snake’s mouth. Several men gathered, lit the ends of the ropes they were each holding and tried to fling their fire rope to reach the top of the pole. Occasionally, one man would miss entirely and his flame-filled rope would go wizzing into the crowd
of spectators. This fire flinging lasted at least a half hour and drummers were playing in the background, giving their encouragement and support. Finally, one flame went flying to the very top of the pole and set the top bursting into fireworks. The group of men gathered and carefully took down the ropes that were supporting the pole in a standing position. Slowly, the pole began to tilt and then, faster and faster…the pole crashed to the ground, setting off an entire show of fireworks right overhead. It was an amazing sight. I have never been so close to a firework show in my life.

along the Cape Toi coast

mini horses from the samurai days are common in these parts

cape toi scenes

<><><><>

Cape toi lighthouse

festival pole

top of pole

kids ready to perform dance

fire-throwing

boom!

I took part in the Miyazaki Dance Festival called Erekoccha.
It usually is held in June, but was postponed this year. People of all ages and people who are afiliated with different groups line the steets of downtown Miyazaki. Three different folk songs are played and each group has three dance numbers to perform while walking. Each group, no matter their dance, would clap at the same time during the songs. I took part in the festival as a member of the International Foundation. They gave all performers robes to use and fans that had the flag from our country on it. It was such a hot day, I think it was the hottest day so far, but the experience was well worth it and of course, we were on TV!

all dressed up

random dude jumped into our picture

JETs ready to dance

downtown filled with dancers

some colorful dance group

The latest adventure was the Aoshima Beer Festival. I tagged along with some driving friends to the beach, Aoshima Beach. There we camped overnight with a bunch of other JETs. We walked along the beach to the beer festival. Although the variety of beer was limited, I still had a great time. Some booths had imported beer in bottles only (In my thirty years of existance, I have already tried almost all of these). I went in search of local or even Japanese micro-brews and managed to find some. I had a blonde beer from Aya Town, which is close to my main school. I had a dark beer from Hokkaido. Both were tasty. I proceeded to play some kid's carnival games and earned some quality prizes. One game I particularly enjoyed was the game where I had to shoot a cork gun at prizes to knock them down. I won a transformer toy. After the fireworks, we proceeded to BBQ at the beach, drink, had a midnight swim in the ocean, and then we finally went to bed in the early hours right there on the beach.