Bunka no Hi

Yesterday was culture day (bunka no hi). So that meant no classes and another national holiday. Word on the street was that Asakusa would be the main part of Tokyo having a big festival for the day. It was called Tokyo Jidai Matsuri (Tokyo era festival). The main event was supposed to be a big parade down the main street showing Tokyo throught the ages. So before that we walked down the mian shopping avenue towards the big temple because it looked like that was all the rage at the moment.


This was the entrance to the shopping avenue leading to the temple. The charachters say "Kaminarimon"-lightning gate.


Here is a pay toilet if you get desperate.


This is the beginning of the shopping street. It was all decorated for the day.


This is the temple that was at the end of the street.


This thing was making its way to the temple as well. I'm not sure what it was for but there were ladies on board playing the shamisen and men behind the cart banging cymbals.


This was a dragon thing that was in front of the cart.

After we found the temple we decided to go and wait for the parade to start since the brochure said it would start at 1:30. Lies. We sat there for an hour and saw 2 carts go by. Finally it started and the parade went from old japan to more recent japan. Along the parade route they had set across a large piece of red plastic for people to sit on. I don't know how they did it, sitting on concrete is uncomfortable no matter what colour it is.


This was the parade route with the many viewers.


There were boy scouts all up and down the parade route just sitting there and every now and then a man scout would come and tell him something. They never really did anything but if I remember anything from being in Boy Scouts, they probably got community service for a merit badge.


This was on of the crappy carts they tried to appease the crowds with an hour before anything interesting actually happened. Two of these montrosities went by in an hour. Bring a book.


The other crowd dissapointer.


Then the actual parade started with this. I think they explained her as some sort of warlord.


Samurais.


Women.


These crane women were pretty popular. They did some dances and stuff.


Crane women dancing.


Today was also the main day of the 7-5-3 festival. Which is if you are 7, 5 or 3 your parents dress you up and go to the local temple or shrine and dedicate you. Kind of like first communion. Only you get three of them. I imagine these boys are 7,5 or 3 and are in the parade because of it.


Following the boys was this demon thing wearing these shoes that look really hard to walk in. (S)he had to walk the entire parade in them though. The Japanese are experts in wearing stilettos while running or walking up stairs so this probably isn't too bad.


To my surprise, Miho was in the parade. Miho is the girl who took us to pool a couple weeks ago. She is the one closet to the camera in green. I think she is supposed to be some sort of court lady.

After that the parade lost its initial appeal. I mean I can only look at Japanese people walking in a line dressed in Kimonos for so long before I get bored. After the parade some people went home and Rachel and I and Rachel's friends from church got something to eat. Then her friends left and Rachel and I wanted still to look around since we didn't get to see all too much because of the masses of people.

I found a really cheap shoe store and got some shoes that actually fit me. Pretty exciting to find such a thing in Japan. My shoe size here is either a 26 or 27 I found out. After a while of walking we found ourselves in another potentially shady part of Tokyo. There were homeless people on the side of the street and what I think was "massage parlours" on the other side. All we saw were giant pictures of naked women and assumed. We turned the corner and once again we were in the middle of regular Tokyo. We decided to go back after that. An exciting cultural day.