2006 Taisha Summer Festival (Goen Matsuri)

2006 Taisha Summer Festival (Goen Matsuri) - 30
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Hello All -

Another batch of catch-up pics this time - this group dating back to Saturday, August 19th.

That Saturday was the day for the Taisha town summer festival, or Goen Matsuri.

It's a great little town festival, and I've enjoyed going for the past three years, this past year perhaps being my last opportunity to attend.
My first year was uneventful, as I was brand new in Taisha and just stumbled on the festival after work one afternoon. I walked around for about 30 mins and went home.
My second year was better, and it was the first day I met the then new ALT Ang, who has become a good friend. We walked around for a while, seeing many of my students and watching the parade.
This past year was the best yet, and I joined three new JETs - Judy, Hannah, and Pia - and we spent the better part of the day at the festival, taking in all it had to offer.

Despite constant refrains of "Jason sensei!", we managed to walk around and see the sites and pose for many pics with my kids, many of whom were dressed up in their summer yukata, a light summer kimono made of cotton that is popular attire at Japanese summer festivals.

My town holds a massive bingo game with great prizes, like DVD players and video game machines. It's funny tho, cuz many of the prizes are fruit, which is so expensive here it actually is a good prize, and alcohol, like a 24 case of beer - and you'll see 10 year olds go up and try to carry off a massive case of beer - very amusing.

And there is a parade, with some of my kids in the local Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts making floats, and traditional dance performances, and music by young people with guitars. Lots of food and stuff to buy of course - i had a hot dog on a stick and some chicken nugget type things - both oishii (delicious).

It was great to see so many of my kids and seeing them out of their school uniforms was an unusual site. I also got to see kids that I taught who are now in High School so that was cool too.

It was a hot day, but a lot of fun was had by all, so click on this pic to be taken to more pics from that day.

Cheers,
Jason