On October 8 we went to our first festival, which was in downtown Gifu (about a 15 min. bike ride from our apartment). It was held to honor one of Gifu's old emporers. At the festival, we could see a lot of different aspects of the culture. At first, we watched several girls dancing on stage to American rap music. It was really funny because none of them knew what the lyrics meant, and the parents were all smiling and videotaping, as profanity was blaring from the speaker!
Next we watched a parade that had women dancing in kimonos, samurais, beautiful floats, and people riding around on horses to represent the old emporer.
After the parade, we walked around and looked at all the vendors selling food, candy, toys, dishes, kimonos, etc.
We ended the festival by watching a drum performance. We were really impressed by the strength and intensity of the drummers. This was a great ending to our first festival!
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