Innoshima Summer Festival

Heather McLean
August 27th 2005

Innoshima Summer Fest
Allison, Stacey and me

My first weekend at home in Innoshima was a complete success! August is festival month in Japan, and this weekend it was the Summer festival in Innoshima. My friends Stacey and Allison joined me for some island fun!

On Saturday evening there was a big celebration at the beach. There were hundreds of people there, to watch dance performances, taiko drumming, fire parades, and a lot of chanting. The night started with performances by the children, who were really cute....and will probably all be my students in a couple of weeks! Most of the people were dressed in antique-style army gear. Innoshima used to be the home of a pirate naval base in the 1400s, so it probably has something to do with that. One of the highlights of the night was the lighting of two 40-foot torches. There were two groups of men carrying these torches, and they dipped them in a big bonfire. They carried them around the beach, wobbling all over the place.....at one point the crowd rushed away because everyone thought the torch was going to collapse! The night ended with a fireworks show. The fireworks were amazing....unlike any I've seen before in my life. I

warriors preparing to march

can't imagine what they would be like in a major Japanese city. They sure like their pyrotechnics here!

On Sunday it was boat racing all day. There were many different teams, divided by age, male/female, competitive/non-competitive. The race started off the beach, in these traditional, long, wooden row boats. There were two people at the stern of the boat....one who was chanting and the other was beating a drum. It was a really hot day, so I imagine that it was really exhausting. After hours of boat races we decided to check out the Innoshima castle.

the crowd and show