Utsunomiya Omatsuri

Two weekends ago, we went to the Takanezawa Omatsuri festivals. Utsunomiya is the larger city that we live close to. Their festival was last week. We decided to go. I learned a few things from the local festival - beer is expensive was one of them - about 500 yen ($5) for an 8 or 10 ounce glass at some places. I took a 12 pack in my over the shoulder cooler and we took the train into town.

We were at the festival for about 4 hours, but time went by quickly. We had a lot of fun. There is a chance that we will be back in the US next year at this time, but our plans are not set yet. If we do go home, we will not get the chance to attend these festivals. Our return date is July of 2012 so we will probably miss it again. So, we were happy to get the chance to attend this year.



Savannah and Denny at the train station.










Drum truck - it seemed like the different city blocks were blocked off. These drum trucks would make circles around the block. There were also vehicles pulled by people that did the same thing. The people watching were the ones that were on the move, walking up and down the sidewalks.






Dancers on main street.










This was one of the carts that I mentioned above. It was hot that day. With the costumes and efforts they were making, these people had to be hot. I was sweating just watching them. The cold beers helped, though.







Bratwurst is really hard to find in Japan. In fact, I have not seen it yet. I heard that Costco has them, but we have not needed to go there yet. We still have a lot of goodies that we shipped.

I jumped at the chance to (possibly) get a brat. I bought this sausage. I could not figure out what was sticking out of the top, but quickly found out it was a bone that they cooked the sausage on. It was more of a kielbasa that a brat, but it was still good.

I also went heavy on the mustard only to find out that it was the hot Chinese mustard that you get at Chinese restaurants. Did I mention that I had a few cold beers?


Savannah in her kimono.

If you notice the sidewalk, it has a textured walkway. This is for blind people to use. I think we have these in the US, but here, they are everywhere. I think the Japanese are very conscience about the needs of everyone in society.








Denny got a kick out of this giant Cheeseburger. I think it was a stand related to the "Grab Happiness Diner". Funny name, but they have pretty good burgers. Savannah and I ate there when we went to Utsunomiya on a shopping trip. I think it was over $30 for lunch.











Dancers on the main street in Utsunomiya.




Carrying a Mikoshi through town.





Another town's mikoshi







Takanezawa's (our town) mikoshi. We were looking for our friend Larry Hughes who was supposed to be helping carry it. We saw them on the sidewalk at one point, but didn't see him carrying it.




Pom-pom in front of the shrine on main street.




Another giant pom-pom.




One of the carts pulled by people - men, women and children.