Hiyoshi Matsuri

---

Hi,

Last night was the big Hiyoshi Village Festival (as big as a village of less than 3,000 can hold). I was asked to take part in the dancing and parade festivities. There are these really long, thin logs from some sort of pine tree that are carried down the street. But they just can't be simply carried...like everything in Japanese society, there is a certain and proper way to do it. The young men have to bounce up in down in a dancing kind of way and two women must rest their hands on the moving log. I don't really think that they have a purpose except maybe to be eye candy. Anyway, my job was the eye candy part. Also, older men have these loudspeaker megaphones and they sing traditional Japanese festival songs while the logs are being danced down the street. To add to that, the logs make this really loud creaking sound and the boxes attached to the logs bang the ground too. So basically there is a whole lotta noise. And every couple of minutes, we stop and the logs are moved to the side so that we can do 3 types of dances. One festival dance, one rice hat dance (for a good harvest), and then the Kiso Valley dance. Everytime we stop for dancing, everyone eats and drinks and socializes. Fun fun!! I got to wear a yukatta (summer kimono) for the first time and that was really cool. I'm getting some better pics soon, but here are a couple to hold you over.

Ok...thats all for now.
Love,
April

---

Photos

I am Nihon-jin!!
So here I am in a yukatta. I borrowed it from my supervisor's wife. It takes about 30 minutes to put one of these on correctly.

Workin hard...
Dancin up and down the street...

Holy men
During the day, the priests and co. travel up and down the streets collecting offerings.