The Most Famous Festival in Japan
After returning from a 2 hour ride from Amanohashidate, my friend took us to the Gion Festival which was held around down-town Kyoto(Yoiyama). As soon as we got off the train, there were swarms of people everywhere wearing beautiful yukatas.Walking outside of the station got a little bit more tricky because we were literally elbow to elbow with the 1000's of people filliing up the streets. It was quite hard to move in any other direction but the direction of the crowd. In other words, we were quite helpless until we reached a big intersection in which we had a little breathing space to figure out what we wanted to do.
One of the many famous things about the Gion Festival are the gigantic structures that display beautifully huge lanterns all around town. It is really hard to get a good picture because it is so crowded and hard to find a good picture taking spot.
After walking around a bit, my stomach started to talk to Boris, so we decided that we should get something to eat. Festival food is really something to enjoy because it is one of the only times when pigging out is okay! For all of those people who are watching their weight, perhaps the Gion Festival is something to avoid since there are so many food booths that offer delicious food. The dangerous thing is that there are many booths that sell the same thing. So if you really like okonomiyaki and want seconds, you do not have to walk back to the original booth for there will be another okonomiyaki booth waiting for you.
Some of the foods to expect in festivals are yakitori(Grilled Chicken on a stick), okonomiyaki(Pancake meets pizza), takoyaki(Octopus), and kakigori(Shaved Ice). There was one thing that was really good that I think people in America would like. It is called "omuretsu doggu and it is a frankfurt hotdog wrapped up in fried egg batter on a stick covered with mayonaisse and ketchup. Unfortunately, it was so good that I forgot to take a picture. My hands were also kind of sticky from eating all of the festival food, so I was not able to take many pictures.
After eating, we decided to call it a night and head home. Something I found interesting when trying to leave the festival was that there were cones and barriers in the middle of the road that seperated and organized the flow of the crowd. So people coming in to the festival stayed on one side of the road while other people who were leaving or trying to get to other parts of the fefstival stayed on the other side of the road. I guess this helps make walking with thousands of people on the same road easier because you do not have to contend or weave through people coming from the opposite direction.
Tomorrow, we head for Fukuoka to meet my friend Yuuki. I hear Fukuoka is a drinking town, so I stayed away from alcohol during the Gion Festival to save my liver for Fukuoka. If you do not see updates for a few days, it probablly mean I have passed out from all of the drinking : )
