MY FIRST FESTIVAL (MATSURI) IN KASEDA

Japan is the land of festivals.  Big cities have big and small festivals, and smaller cities and towns have smaller versions.  While some are nationally celebrated, many are local, think 4^th of July or firemen’s carnivals.  In mid August, Brian and Nancy and I were advised that a town festival would be a lot of fun, a good way to meet some of the town’s people, and we agreed to the outing. It would be on the street, right below my apartment.  This was ultra-convenient, but later I would learn that sometimes the noise went on longer than I would have liked; and the preparations, which included a lot of hammering started before 8:00 a.m., usually on a Saturday.  I really didn’t mind because each of them was fun in the end.

I did not know what was being celebrated, perhaps the rice harvest, since the fields were cut around mid-August.  Rice fields are incredibly beautiful if you like brilliant green blades of tall grain blowing in the wind and multiple herons, cattle heron, great whites, and great blue herons taking wing and silently gliding away from you.  I was not fully aware of how beautiful this would be, because I was staying too close to my apartment.  Actually, rice fields were right outside the town and in varying shapes and sizes, every available space planted and often attended by hand by the elderly and with lawn mower-sized machines for larger plots.

The festival began with a parade of dancing by clubs and groups of men, women and children dressed in yukata or kimono, which were made of silk and more formal than the cotton yukata, or the hapi coats, just short jackets that identified all the members of the group by color and names of their organization across the back.  We enjoyed the music, nothing we recognized, but it was usually very old songs.  The dancers were of all ages, and it seemed to me that volcanoes, sky, sun and cutting rice motions were being suggested as they danced in unison.  It was altogether a fun time.  

 

                                             Their short coats are hapi coats.
 

 

                                                   On the street where I lived.
 

                                       The red sign says Kaseda Matsuri, really.

Then someone made a point of showing us a very large, raw head of a fish, just the head, mind you, its wide mouth opened and pointing up with eyes and innards (brains) still intact, and centered on a large platter.  It probably weighed over 5 pounds as it was bigger than my head.  They said we could taste it after it was cooked on the grill.  Nancy translated and Brian agreed readily.  It seems there’s a lot of seafood available in Ireland, and he knew it would be tasty.  I was not so sure.  But he was right.  Later they found us, pulled us over to their booth, and handed us chopsticks.  Brian dug right into the middle of it and let us all know it was delicious, so Nancy and I dug in as well.  I made sure to get the white meat around the bottom of the neck and, honestly, it was really good.  The evening ended successfully, and we knew we would not hesitate to attend the next festival.