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I'm not sure what I expected when I went to the Otsu matsuri, but I was impressed and surprised at varying moments. Head Teacher invited me out with his mother to wander around the city, but first I was treated to a sumptuous lunch of sushi train by his mother, where i ate raw wasabi...Have you ever felt like your brain was crying? I have! The name of the sushi actually includes the word cry in it...so be warned. Saying that, I tried it twice and once you get over the confusing sensations in your head, it's rather nice.

The Otsu Matsuri is similar to the Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri, and the Gion Matsuri,　but in size it sits somewhere between the two. There are 12 carts, each with a set of musicians wearing colourful robes with beautiful pictures on them, and each cart has a mechanical tableau set up inside. On the main strip - a closed set of 2 lane street, the carts pause, and the tableau comes to life - often because the smallest musicians, 9 year old drummer boys, crawl inside and start turning dials and knobs. There were dancing women, a fish catching scene, the blossomings of flowers, each accompanied by some traditional music. The pictures speak for themselves.

These festivals are usually in honour to local gods, for a good rice season, or good fortune in life, and the streets were lined with people eager to receive luck. At certain points through the crowd lined streets, the carts would stop, and musicians would throw small wrapped towels or bomboo wrapped rice packages into the crowd. It is said that if you catch one of these woven packages, and hang them up in front of your door, then you will have good luck all year long. I didn't catch one, and that's what surprised me the most. No, i'm not surprised at my lack of athletic ability - i'll never make the olympics - but because of the agressiveness of the Japanese people who were in the crowd near me. I have seen the calm, inscrutable stereotype broken before, and know that Japanese people can be quite gregarious and fun, but violent?

Some people seemed so desperate for that good luck, clawing and scratching their way through the crowd to receive a package. Everywhere I looked, there were hands grabbing, and I was thwarted over and over again by lightning fast reflexes and grim determination. I tried my luck for about twenty minutes, but got out in fear not for my life but for my face. The closest I came to getting a package was when one fell down by my feet, but as I bent to pick it up, a small boy darted in and whipped it out of reach. The catalyst for my decision was seeing one Japanese man grab a hold of one and have it ripped from his grasp with enough force to leave a red mark. I figure I can make my own luck this year...

After hangiong around watching more carts go by, and seeing the musicians throwing packages through windows at the smae level as them, or onto what looked like a rooftop garden full of young women, we moved on to a local shrine, where his mother said some prayers and we wandered through a makeshift market selling the best delights - carnival food. Crackling roasted chicken, okonomiyaky wrapped around chopsticks, candy apples, chocolate bananas, sweet potato, corn on the cob...if you want to stay slim, stay away from masturi nibblies!

It is always nice to see something traditional being kept alive, and judging by the number of people present, it looks like the Otsu Matsuri is not likely to become a thing of the past, though that:s when it began. If you:re ever in SHiga at this time of year, go along for a lively spectacle!

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