Nishitani!

Also went to some inaka town called Nishitani for the matsuri (big shinto festival) and probably had one of the coolest days ever.

Explored a beautiful town, got thirsty and a beer magically appeared in front of me, made omlette rice and cut my thumb because my culinary skills are not sharp, made fancy Japanese papercraft, got serenaded by a shakuhachi duet (they rocked), and watched one of the most interesting parades I've ever seen.

There were huge, multiple hundred pound floats, manned by all the men of the town. There were 4 children beating the drums inside the float as they carried it on two giant logs, and they kept dropping it on themselves, and then hoisting it back up and then lifting it above their heads.

They carried it all around the town, and then back to the shrine, and then they finally set it down. There were 5 floats, and 2 were carried by children. It was a fantastic show. When they all parked in front of the shrine, the priest came out, and the Shrine Maidens danced.

The Shrine Maidens were reenacting a battle, and actually danced with bared steel. It was rather terrifying, but still beautiful.

Then the priest threw rock hard mochi at us and it was awesome.

I caught most of them with my face, but every once in a while i caught them with my hands.

And im tired of fighting the formatting of Google Blogs, so here's a line of photos.

Until the next one!