Matsuri time!!

This post is brought to you from a cubicle at the internet cafe Rounge in Nagoya. For reasons unknown, but probably due to our lack of Japanese comprehension, Althea and I are forced to share a computer in one cubicle. We've read that in recent years, these internet cafes have actually become temporary homes for homeless businessmen who lost their jobs. In any case, we get free unlimited drinks and a little cubicle to ourselves for however long we want it (as long as we pay of course). My only distraction is Althea, who is listening to music on headphones while I type, asking me to change songs for her every few minutes.

Anyway we did so much in our week in Kyoto but never got the time to post so lets get right to it! Throughout the whole month of July of every year, a huge festival takes place in Kyoto called the Gion Matsuri. On July 17th, a huge parade occurs on several of the main streets in downtown where dozens of men push around 30 plus floats around. The floats are made of wood and only held together by rope and several of them are about 20-30m in height.

The float is so tall that it doesn't really fit into the frame

Omigod the people!

It takes about 30 or 40 men just to pull the float.

The entire parade lasts about 4 hours but we didn't stay for the whole thing because it was 35 degrees out and it seemed like all the people of Kyoto had gathered onto the same street we did. Luckily, we went to the street where the parade would end and actually got to see the floats 'dock' back at the place where they started the parade.

The great thing about the Matsuri is that in the 2 or 3 nights before the actual parade, they have a huge street festival where they closed down 2 of the major downtown streets at night and set up food and game stalls. I liken it to the 'Taste of the Danforth' back in T.O. except with ten times more people. The first time we went with Kyle, we had already had dinner so we didn't eat anything but Althea and I decided that we would return the next night just to eat. Although most of the stalls had similar foods (there were really only 7 or 8 different types of food in all), each stall was packed with people all the same.