kishiwada, kamiyama, & osaka

Well, I didn't think I could top last weekend's adventure to Ikeda but these past few days have been full of awe and excitement. On a whim, I took a bus from Naruto to Osaka on Saturday morning with my friend Sarah to check out the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival. Here's some details about the event:

(from www.tokyocube.com)

"[S]ometimes called 'The Fighting Festival', The Kishiwada Danjiri festival takes place in Osaka, and began as a dedication to Inari, the fox god of the harvest.

Around 30 huge floats are used in the festival; they are made from wood and are the pride of the neighborhood from which they are from.

The floats are designed to go very fast, and the most exciting part of the festival is seeing the danjiri being pulled at high speeds around narrow roads and street corners. They are pulled in all directions and their sharp 90 degree turns draw gasps of exhilaration from the crowd. As the floats are pulled up the steep slope to Kishiwada Castle, there is a particularly sharp turn, and sometimes floats tumble over or crash into a building, all adding to the drama and spectacle of the race. Those danjiri that survive the festival are exquisite pieces of art."


It's hard to even explain how wild this thing was. Sarah, myself, and a few others were eventually pulled into the action and we pushed one of the wooden floats all around the neighborhood. I talked to a lot of Kishiwada residents about the festival and I realized the importance of the event. Much like the Awa Odori dance in Tokushima, the Danjiri festival is the pride of Kishiwada.


A few hours after coming back from Osaka I was on my way to Kamiyama to visit Emma, a JET from Great Britain. A small crew of us set out to climb a nearby waterfall and it turned out to be one of the most amazing sights I've witnessed since moving to Japan. I've never seen mountains like the ones in Tokushima and the more I explore the area the luckier I feel to be here.