Tripping Far Side

Last night was the Miki Autumn Festival that celebrates the recent rice harvest. Natsumi, a first-year student, invited me out to join her and her friends. She is in one of pictures, wearing a pink jacket on the right.

The festival was spectacular. About 60 local people each carry these 2-ton, ornate portable shrines on their shoulders that require a lot of teamwork. And of course, a lot of alcohol. :) Children sit in the shrine too, shouting along with all the chanting. Throughout the day, they carry them around their neighborhood, and then rendezvous at Miki's Omiya Shrine. And the kicker? To get to Omiya Shrine, they have to carry it up 85 steps that has an incline of about 45 degrees. And it was wet last night (hence some had plastic covering). It was quite a sight to see.

Natsumi and I had a lot of good food at the festival. We tried Hiroshima-yaki (in the picture), kara-age (awesome fried chicken), Castella (fresh bite-sized cakes), candied apples, and ice cream. They also had frankfurters and takoyaki (fried octopus balls). They had some mini-games, so we tried a cork-shooting game, but no luck.

Around the festival, we met up with a lot of other students. I think many wondered if Natsumi and I were "going out" just because we were together. Haha well, they're at that age when love-love is important. :)

Well, I was sick last night, so I had an early night. I'm glad Natsumi invited me to come, otherwise, I would have missed out.