Adventures in Japan: Week 5: Kishiwada Danjiri

I went to a festival!
This wasn't like that little festival the first day I moved into my new place. This was a CITY WIDE festival. Of course, it was a different city, but I showed up anyhow! :)
The Kishiwada Danjiri festival is apparently a big deal, famous all over Japan, and according to an information packet we got, draws people home from various places in Japan, that don't even show up for Bon or New years! "Therefore, it is not strange that it should be the highest efficiency season for the police to arrest the wanted." I'm not kidding, the packet said that.

"What IS a Kishiwada Danjiri?" I hear you ask!

Well, Kishiwada is a city, just south of Osaka. And this is a Danjiri.

It's a wooden cart in which, as far as I can tell, neighborhood gods reside. Each neighborhood gets together and decorates it and hauls it around the city to visit each shrine/temple in the area. Over the years, it evolved into quite the festive undertaking, especially as there is a certain element of danger. See, these things are heavy. And they hold a lot of people.

Far as I could tell, on the inside alone, they usually had 2 people on drums, 1 on bell, two on flute and a few for backup. On the outside, 2 in back to do directing, three in front to be the elders and any number hanging off the sides, and of course, the one guy on the top, jumping from side to side on the roof!

And so there are a LOT of people hauling them.

no, more than that

and in front of every corner, they wait a moment, then the pullers dig in their toes, and the brake is release and they go SCREAMING around the corner as fast as they can! Now, I know you're thinking, "they're running, how fast can that be? Well, since they're going around a corner, the force IS enough that sometimes people get thrown off. I got to see it! He rolled across the street about 10-15 feet before popping back up and hopping back on. There's a guy that stands on top, and historically they're the ones in the most danger, but I never saw one of them fall off. And of course, rumor is that at least one person dies each year, but I'm not sure how true that one is. :)

The sight said that the festival would go ALL day, until 10:00 pm, but that the big race around was at 6:00 AM, and I really wanted to see that, so I agreed with my festival companion that we'd meet there around 6. Which, with travel time, meant I woke up at 4:30. Kinda peaceful actually.

Getting there was a little adventure, I accidentally closed my map app, and only by the good will of God found enough free wi-fi to not get TOTALLY lost.

So I arrive at the station, and it was PACKED. But I got to see this!

They have people of all ages from the neighborhood pulling (ALL ages) and everyone wears traditional clothes and a neighborhood specific jacket, and a towel rolled up and tied around their heads, and the girls (yes, lots of girls pulling too) all had their hair done in these REALLY elaborate corn rows!

Found my festival companion, and we watched different danjiri go around for a while, then decided to walk the festival and see what there was to see.
We found a shrine.

And some fair food.

those are danjiri shaped cake thingies. I think they needed custard.

Oh look, you can get your french fries with chocolate and/or caramel sauce!

Fruit dipped in molten sugar. Gives a new meaning to "candied apples"

And, of course, adorable children.

The kids learn the music by practicing it when no one else is using the danjiri.

As we were wandering around, we were waylaid by someone who was like "so, you look like you're foreigners." (we had realized not just 5 minutes before that we hadn't noticed ANY OTHERS around.)
"yes....?" (what gave it away? the blond hair or blue eyes?)
"We have a foreigner information center over there and you'll get to take a cool picture and we'll give you a fan and a traditional headwrap."

well, ok then!

We saw a few others while we were there, The jackets are like what the people who pull the danjiri wear. :) We did not get to keep the BIG fans, but we got some smaller ones and it was a good thing too, 'cause it was HOT.

and we wore these the rest of the day. I'm CERTAIN we ended up covertly in more than photo album.

While we were there, they told us two things. First of all, the racing around the streets happens 3 times throughout the day, so we didn't actually have to show up at 6 AM. Secondly, they circled on the map where the most dangerous corner was, because it was shaped like a Z, so two turns right after another.

This is us waiting at the dangerous corner. :D

They made the corner, while looking FABULOUS. (some might recognize the musician dressed as characters from Momotaru)

There were breaks in between the racing around, so we did other fair things. We ate odd food, we saw Kishiwada Castle,

And saw a VERY traditional tea house and garden. My festival partner had taken a class on different gardens, including tea gardens so she could tell me a lot about the technical bits of the tea ceremony and where the garden falls into it. :)

Near the end, our adventures turned into "Let's go over there. And sit." "Ok, lets see what's at that park. And sit." "food time! Let's sit and eat!" :)

We did hang around until dark though, which is longer than I usually stay at a festival. (at least one I started before sunrise) But there was a reason! They pulled the carts ONE more time! Slowly this time, and with LIGHTS!

And because they were going slowly this time, they let the REALLY little kids pull too!

Some of those kids were yelling with all their might, trying to get everyone to pull faster. :)

I'm helping!

they also let the little ones play the instruments. Kid's drumming was on POINT

We were GOING to stay until it closed at 10:00, but by 9 we were done. "Yeah, let's go home, beat traffic." done. This did not stop us from rubbernecking on our way out, and getting some candy.