Sept 20th
DANJIRI MATSURI!! I was so excited that I got to go! It was held in Kishiwada, in a southern area of Osaka province. Each neighborhood of the area has their own BIG wooden cart (danjiri) and its very intricately decorated/carved with really cool battle scenes and demons and stuff. then they get all the boys/men to either ride in/on it and direct and play music and cheer, or they are pulling the cart by the ropes attached to the front. They race around the city, going around tight corners and making sure the people watching are out of the way (some of them run ahead and push people back if needed). People have actually been known to die at these festivals because the carts can fall over, and they weigh TONS, so if you don’t get off in time you could be crushed.
So I got off the train and out of the train station and immediately there were people gathered on both sides of the street waiting for the lantern-lit danjiris that go around at night. There were sooo many street vendors. It was at least a mile or two along a road where there were shoulder-to-shoulder food vendors and games and souvenirs. that was just a long stretch, too- there were other vendors and stuff around the whole city. I had some grilled salmon on a stick (they liked to advertise with the fish heads), a weird dish thats sorta like a flat taco sandwich (two thin flat taco shell style things, with lettuce and egg and mayo and an odd sauce in the middle.. theres really no good way to eat them), some sort of noodle dish that was actually kinda gross but hey at least i tried it, a pastry with a fish on it (it tasted nothing like fish and i forget what its called), aaand a fresh fruit smoothie. I tried one or two of the games, most of it was just paying a dollar or two, and then you get to randomly choose a number/token/ball and you get the corresponding bag/box with a prize in it. There was one where you have these odd little moisture...balls..? in water, and you pick up as many as you can with a paper net and you stop once the net is so wet it can no longer support the weight. some of them count the balls and give you a prize to go with it, but I did one where you get to keep what you managed to pickup which was cool... she even added a handful to my bag since i didn’t do too well! haha
After that I got some souvenirs, a scrunchie with the name of the festival on it, a bag with all the neighborhood symbols, and some tights with a symbol of one neighborhood. I got it because their symbol has a kanji in the middle- one that can mean “hand”... and its on the ankle of the tights... hehehe so i’ve got a hand on my foot! :D
I even got to practice my Japanese, when I asked the guy if it was okay to take the picture. he didnt understand me, but his friend did! so he took the picture for us.
My feet hurt SO BAD by the time i was done walking around, but it was so worth going. I didn’t get home until midnight, and I was exhausted, but it was awesome :)
