Back in August I went to visit a couple of friends Masae and Hiroaki who live just north of Tokyo in a historic city, with buildings that date back over 300 years, called Kawagoe. At the time they put out the invitation to return in October for the city's festival held on the third weekend of October every year.
The beginnings of the Kawagoe festival date back to 1648 and was centred around the local Hikawa Shrine. As time went on Kawagoe became more and more wealthy due to river trade with Japan's capital, Edo (now Tokyo), and the festival developed and became larger each year. In 1844 the addition of festival floats to the festival gave the festival it's final and grandest touch. Now each year the festival concludes with a parade (called Hikkawase in Japanese) of 29 festival floats (each one representing a different neighbourhood of Kawagoe) parading through the streets of the old part of town. These floats are about 5 metres high and appear very imposing if you are standing next to them!
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people from Kawagoe, nearby areas and Tokyo come to Kawagoe to experience the excitement of the festival. I am sure that the population of Kawagoe probably doubles during the Festival as it only has a population of about 340,000 during regular times! In 2005 the the festival was given it's greatest honour as it was designated a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
I met Masae and Hiroaki at the train station and we started off towards the festival area. We had already been alerted by one of the people I work with , Jarrett, who we were on our way to meet, that the area was so crowded it took him a couple of hours to cover what would usually have been a 15 minute walk! The crowds were huge, but it only took us about an hour to make the walk and we were finally able to catch up with Jarrett. I had bought a large capacity memory card for my camera to be able to fit more photos on but when I turned on the camera I was faced with "CARD ERROR"! The first of the majestic festival floats had just turned the corner and was heading our way! I thought Jarrett might know what the problem was as he is an expert on cameras and a great photographer himself. It turns out that the capacity was was too large for my camera to handle. Jarrett quickly reached into his camera case and pulled out a smaller capacity card which I was able to slap into the camera just as the first float arrived!
The floats are pulled around by a large number of people who pull on ropes extending from the front of the float.
The top part of the float is where some musicians and a dancer stand at the front performing a Hayashi performance (a traditional Japanese orchestra comprised of flutes, drums, bells and dancers).
Like I said, these floats are huge, and you do feel very small standing next to them. There are also usually a couple of people who sit all the way up on top of the float. You wouldn't want to be scared of heights!
Pretty soon another float appeared with it's musicians and dancers in full swing entertaining the massive crowd.
In this next shot you can see the ornate detail that goes into the crafting and decorating of one of these floats. No winder they cost so much (over $200,000 per float)!
We next walked into an area of a temple that had been set aside for food stalls and sideshow stalls. There was the usual array of food stalls that you can find at any Japanese festival. In fact upon telling some Japanese people that I had been to the Kawagoe festival, the first question I am asked is "What did you eat?". Food is an integral part of a Japanese festival!
Shooting gallery. I noticed that the kids were firing the guns extended one handed out in front of their bodies. That's how safe a country Japan is. The kids don't know how hold guns when shooting them properly.
Darts,
Goldfish (with a little scoop, try to scoop up a goldfish to take home as a pet),
This guy was doing the same, although, with the mask he was wearing, maybe he was not looking for a pet......
bird whistles (although I can't imagine any sane mother or father buying them for their kids!),
the same game as the goldfish, but to get a rubber ball or toy instead.
Takoyaki (battered balls of octopus),
karaage (fried chicken),
chocco bannana (as the name suggests),
and, of course, my favourite, okonomiyaki.
No prizes for guessing what I ate!
We next went back out to the street and took in a couple of more passing floats. Something very interesting was happening. As 2 floats passed each other, they would stop, the top of the floats would then swivel around to face each other and the two sets of musicians and dancers then would have a dance battle. Unfortunately the float staff wouldn't allow us to get close enough to get a good shot, but that is what is happening in this picture.
Another thing that the floats do is when they arrive at certain points along the street where special seating has been set up, they stop and turn around so that the performers are facing the seats and proceed to give the people in the seats a special performance. I happened to be close enough to one of them to get some nice video footage.
At this point we decided to finish as Masae and Hiroaki had to get their beautiful daughter Akari home for the night. On our way back to the station we passed one final food stall where a master candy craftsman was crafting finely shaped pieces of candy. Masae mentioned that he is quite famous in the area.
We got back to the station and Jarrett and I made our way back to Tokyo well and truly impressed with Kawagoe and it's beautiful festival.
Thanks once again to Masae and Hiroaki for showing us their festival. They really gave great information and showed us places that I would not have known about.
I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading about the Kawagoe festival, the second of my 2 festivals in a week. Thanks again for reading and see you next time.
CNN named Kawagoe "The Most Japanese Destination" in 2012, and after today, it's hard for me to disagree. Kawagoe is actually one of the oldest towns in the Kanto region and the city has preserved areas in the old style. In the seventeenth century, Kawagoe became more important as a Shogun (Feudal Lord) moved in to the area and built his castle there. It is only 50 minutes by train from central Tokyo (Shibuya), it is quite easy to get there.
I had been planning to visit Kawagoe for a long time. I was actually on the train going there in December last year when I saw a message on the train TV saying the train that goes to Kawagoe was suspended (not the one that I was on, but one that I would have to transfer to.....) so I changed my mind and went to Shinatatsu Ramen Street instead. It had always been my intention to visit and recently a friend, Masae, and her family moved to Kawagoe. Masae's husband Hiroaki is a Kawagoe native and they offered to show me around when I went there. I had a three day weekend this weekend and after a few quick messages, it was organised, I would meet them and look around Kawagoe.
I started out from my house early (for me) in the morning and the day was already quite hot.
Japanese summers are quite tropical in that they are hot and humid (I didn't know when I left home, but the temperature was going to hit 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) with almost 80% humidity) and I am not a hot weather guy, but this was Kawagoe, so I was going to endure the conditions and have a great day!
I met Masae, Hiroaki and their beautiful daughter Akari at Kawagoe station. I jumped into their car and said hello to Akari in Japanese and she started crying (good one Jason!). I switched to English and she suddenly stopped! Okay, English it was for the rest of the day with her!
First stop for the day was the historic Kitain Temple to get Masae and Hiroaki's new car purified.
Kitain Temple was built in 830 A.D. It was burned down during fighting in 1205 and rebuilt in 1298. Kitain temple also is home to some buildings from Edo Castle (home to the current Imperial Palace). Due to the damage suffered by Tokyo from the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, these are the only buildings that remain from Edo Castle. Quite a long history indeed.
I had a quick look around the temple grounds that we were in and it was very spacious compared to the ones back in Tokyo.
The main temple itself,
and a nice little pagoda inside the temple grounds.
Next we had a look at the part of the temple that is comprised of the remains of Edo Castle. The entry fee is 400 yen, but worth every yen! These were the last photos I took of this part of the temple as photos inside this building are not allowed.
The garden outside the building,
and an information sign outside.
It is a real shame that I wasn't able to take photos, because the inside was beautiful, and on the other side of the building there was an sensational garden. Also, just like Ni-jo castle in Kyoto it had a floor that was designed to chirp like a nightingale bird to warn the shogun that someone was approaching. Walking around on this floor, I had the same silly grin on my face as I had walking around Ni-jo castle last year. It is incredible the sound that the floorboards make!
At this stage, the purification ceremony for the car was about to take place so Masae, Hiroaki and Akari joined that ceremony, I wandered off to explore the temple grounds some more. Walking behind the temple I came across the Daimyo graves. This is the final resting place of five of the Shoguns that ruled Kawagoe in the 18th and 19th century.
Wandering around a little more I came across this.
It required a little more investigation so I walked around closer and discovered a little Japanese garden area with a shrine on an elevated island in the middle with a little bridge to cross to get to it.
Beautiful and something I had not seen before at any other temple I had visited. A lot of people say that you can only see so many temples before you've seen everything. I disagree! Look closely enough and each temple and shrine has it's own unique aspects.
I walked across to the other side of the temple grounds and saw something astonishing behind some gates.
They were behind a locked gate and I walked around the enclosure a couple of times but couldn't find a way in. I was so disappointed as this looked quite amazing.
I walked back over to where the purification ceremony was taking place and it was still continuing so I bought a beer from the kiosk on the temple grounds and sat back in the shade to enjoy it.
Pretty soon the ceremony was over and Masae and Hiroaki came over and I told them about the statues I had see. "Don't worry" Masae said, "Our tickets for the castle get us in there". Great!!!!
We went to a little ticket box and the man explained in English that there are 538 statues in the enclosure that represent the disciples of Buddha. Of the 538, there are 12 that also have the animal symbols of the signs of the Chinese zodiac. He explained that if you can find the statue that represents your own sign of the zodiac and rub it, it will bring you great luck. My sign is the wild boar and just as we were about to enter he said to me quietly "If you can't find it, I can give you a hint.......". Determined to find it myself we entered and walking around once, we realised the size of the challenge that was ahead of us. There were statues everywhere!!
We found a few animals, but not my boar or Hiroaki's tiger. We went back out to have another look at the pictures and re-entered the enclosure and soon found the tiger. We still couldn't find the boar, and Masae and I were just about to give up when Hiroaki called out to us. We rushed over, and there it was!
I gave it's head a good rub
and now, let the great luck begin!
Mission accomplished, we got back into the car and drove off toward the old part of Kawagoe. We arrived and started walking and pretty soon the old buildings started appearing.
I mentioned to Hiroaki how nice they looked and he said "Oh, we're not there yet!". What, it was going to get better? You bet it was!
Walking around a couple of corners and we saw this.......
Incredible..........The feeling walking along these streets was completely different, but just as amazing as walking along the preserved streets of Takayama. Walking the preserved area of Takayama, it felt like I was in a historical museum. Kawagoe, on the other hand, represented what truly amazes me about Japan. I always say that I love the contrast of the old, traditional Japan living comfortably next to the new, modern Japan, and here was a perfect example in front of me. Three hundred year old buildings lined the streets while cars and buses drove past them. This was the ultimate example that I had seen so far on my travels.
Turning another corner we saw one of the most famous sights of Kawagoe, the Time Bell Tower.
The bell in the tower is rung four times daily (and has been since the early Edo period, in the 1600's) at 6am, 12pm, 3pm and 6pm to inform residents of the time and it's sound has been selected of one of the "one hundred soundscapes of Japan".
After all of that walking, we found ourselves in an area with a few restaurants and selected one to have lunch in.
We were taken to our seats next to a window that overlooked a beautiful waterfall that was cascading into a little pond with some carp swimming around in it.
Lunch came, chicken skin kamameshi (a rice dish cooked in a metal pot), and disappeared pretty quickly too.
Sweet potato is one of the famous products produced in the Kawagoe area along with Unagi (freshwater eel) and coming out of the restaurant we saw desert........sweet potato ice cream!!
Now, I know what you are thinking, but it actually tasted good!!
I tell you, there is one person that I would not have wanted to be on such a hot day like it was. This guy!
Even he looks like he doesn't want to be him! I can't imagine having to run around pulling people and being cheerful in 37 degrees!!
Now, I'm not sure, but I think wearing one of these would be pretty hot and tiring too.......
The next place we arrived at was called "Cat House".
On such a hot day, I didn't expect to see a lot of cats, but there was one out enjoying the sun,
but there were a whole lot of spiders......
A little further on there was a big chameleon telling people that if they throw 5 yen into his little pond, their relationship would grow stronger. I'm single so I kept my wallet in my pocket.
And then there was this.
I'm not sure what he / she was telling people to do.
Next we came to a little street called "Candy Street". Both sides of the street were lined with candy shops selling all sorts of sweet things.
One final place we went to was the Kawagoe Festival Museum but I'm not going to write too much about that here as I do plan to go back to Kawagoe in October when the festival is on to see it and write about it then. The festival will be held on the 18th and 19th of October.
Walking back to the car we walked past (and into) a knife shop. Now Japan is famous for the quality of it's knives and katanas (swords) so I stopped to take a couple of photos as a friend back in Australia loves Japanese knives.
Those two knives by themselves down on the bottom left hand side of the display, can you guess how much they are worth?...........give up?
Over $1,000 each!!! I just can't understand.......I guess chefs will pay that kind of money for top quality knives.
Almost back to the car, Hiroaki pointed out one last scene that needed to have a photo taken of it.
It just kind of summed up Kawagoe. Simply beautiful.
Thanks again for reading, and thanks so much to Masae, Hiroaki and Akari for showing me around Kawagoe. Stay tuned for the October update on the Kawagoe festival.
Until next time, bye.
