Summer Festival

Every July, there are summer festivals around Japan. I went to one. It was mostly boring, but the students I went with had a good time, and some parts were interesting.


Here are the girls I went with.

At the summer festival, you can wear the traditional Japanese yukata, which Miki is wearing. A yukata looks like a bathrobe, and according to the internets, it basically means bathrobe, but it's a little more diverse than that these days. A yukata is supposed to be a casual form of the kimono, and both men and women can wear it, but apparently if you're wearing it out of the house or hotel, it involves tying it up with a wide sash and making a giant bow in the back (where you can stick your fan when you're not using it). So it's hard to get on, the students tell me. It's also supposed to be cool, and good for summer, which is why they're worn at summer festivals, but they look stupid hot, especially since there's an undergarment of some sort underneath, and the thing is tied tight to the body. Everyone complains about how yukata are too hot, and then they also don't look casual at all, and they're expensive, so I'm pretty much going to call yukata a stupid idea, based on the evidence. Yukata worn as a bathrobe seems fine, though, because it's just belted like every other bathrobe.


 Here's another little girl in a yukata, who was probably really hot. It was really, really hot that day. And every day.

This festival was at Terukuni Shrine, to which this gate leads.

Here are some precious Japanese twin girls wearing twin jinbei.

The jinbei is the alternative traditional summer festival wear. I noted upon first seeing them that they just look like pajamas, and the internet told me that they are used as such, as well as for just wearing around the house. They're now also used to go out, though, evidently. These seem way better than yukata because they actually are cool, because they're loose and loosely woven. And they're kind of cute for the most part, albeit silly looking.

I think this is a One Piece jinbei below. One Piece is a famous manga/anime. The characters are second in fame only to Hello Kitty as far as I can tell, and there are quite a lot of products that do a One Piece/Hello Kitty combo.

More jinbei.

What Japanese park would be complete...

Like any other festival, it was just a lot of people milling about the road, buying expensive food and drink, and not doing much else.

Here is an example of some expensive food. We picked up a couple extra students after a while. This food is some rolled cabbage with some other stuff I don't remember on a stick with mayo, ketchup?, and a bunch of other sauce on top. It's okay.

We sat in the park to eat, and this bench was looking particularly Japanese, so I took a picture.

Then we went over to the shrine to get a fortune.

Before you go in, you have to cleanse yourself at this spring. You have to dump water on each hand, and then you actually have to rinse out your mouth, too. I imagine swearing isn't allowed in the shrine area. I probably should have rinsed twice.

Then you go through some paper lamps and children's paintings to the fortune hawking area.

 There's the shrine proper. We didn't go in, thankfully, because the line was wicked long. What are they doing in there?

Here are some Japanese fortunes that you can buy for various prices, depending on how much bullshit you're looking for.

This is where you can get English fortunes, though, for only 100 yen (about $1.25), so we did this one.

Here was my fortune. I like the part about winning my lawsuits. Also the fighting with my husband part.

My camera is not good at focusing. So if you have bad eyes, here's what it says:

The person who holds this oracle may have had a miserable life to begin with, and feels unhappy. Therefore you shall begin to travel, and in doing so you meet someone you really know, and finally you receive help from someone to lead a successful life. This is because it is the blessing of God, remember this.

So, THANKS, GOD! You really CAME THROUGH!!!

You're not supposed to keep the fortune, which is why I took the pictures. You have to fold it up and tie it onto these strings for some reason. Maybe you're not supposed to hog the fortune or something.

Then we left the shrine, and wandered about for a while, did some shopping, and took a purikura photo set. But purikura gets its own entry.

The end.