Linking Maine and Japan

After having been here less than an hour, a group of teachers went to the annual Lantern Festival near Himeji. We had to take 2 trains to get there. Children and teenagers and adults all took part in parades and lantern displays. It was a lot like a carnival or county fair – there were booths outside along the streets selling yummy food. One favorite is a cookie shaped like a fish, filled
either with custard or sweet bean paste. The town is on the Seto Inland Sea, so fishing is important here. The festival is an ancient Shinto festival that celebrates a bountiful harvest and good fishing. Four boys about 6th grade in age ride inside each large shrine, carried by dozens of young men. The boys are dressed in beautiful traditional kimonos, but they are not visible. You can see the back of their kimonos trailing out over the shrine. The boys are inside the shrines, playing taiko drums. The bearers lift and bow with the shrine, and sometimes they even toss it up in the air without holding it. It was breathtaking. Check out the pictures from the Lantern Festival. Do you notice anything interesting in the crowd?

Sayonara,
Mrs. Grumbling