Fire Festival

Each festival we go to seems to get more and more exciting! Last Saturday, April 14, we were invited to the Himatsuri Festival, which translates to fire festival. We were invited by the families of the 4 private students Melissa teaches on Sunday mornings (picture below of students). Since none of the families speak English, we invited one of Frank's adult private students, Kyoko, to translate.
Before the festival began, we all ate dinner at Kaho and Kouko's family's house (2 sisters that Melissa teaches). The pictures below are taken in front of their house. The house was really nice. It's only 4 years old with a lot of wood beams and wood floors inside, almost cabin like.

These are Melissa's students:(starting from the left)
Kouko- 7, Kaho-9, Soutarou- 6, and Momoka- 8

Here's a video of Kouko on her unicycle, which are somewhat popular with kids in Japan!


Before it got dark, all the floats headed to the shrine where the fire festival was held. As they walked, they dropped Black Cats at their feet and banged on large bells.

Once we got to the festival, there were so many people. We walked down the street with all the vendors selling food and also played some games. The kids loaded up on cotton candy and snacks.


Around 7:30, the fire festival began. There were very long posts with fireworks at the top. They would light the fireworks on fire and sparks would literally rain down to the ground. The men with the floats would then run through the sparks, which they believe cleansed or purified them. This was really fun to watch until they made their way to the post next to where we were standing and the sparks and ashes fell on us!
Here is a video:



The last part of the festival were the handheld fireworks. About 100 men all lined up on a balcony with handheld fireworks, which they lit simultaneously. Sparks went everywhere for about 5 minutes. While the sparks were falling from the balcony, all the people with the floats below were continuously running through the fire. It was an amazing sight!

Gifu Spring Festival

Twice a week, Frank has a private English lesson with 2 women, Machiko and Kyoko. They are very nice and have invited us to do many cultural activities with them while we have been in Japan. Last Saturday, April 7, they invited us to the Gifu Spring Festival.

The festival was held near the Nagara River, only a few minutes from our apartment. When we arrived, Machiko and Kyoko gave us a Japanese-style festival shirt to wear...this meant we were able to take part in pulling the float!

Before beginning the processional, a group picture was taken of everyone involved in the float. We were the only foreigners there, so we were REALLY treated like celebrities! Many people tried to speak to us in English and wanted to take pictures with us. We had a great time! Can you find us in the center?

Before the festival began, it took a while for everyone to get in their place. We watched a kabuki-style puppet show that took place in the float and everyone had a sake toast!


Around 10 am, we were ready to start. We took our places on the rope and everyone started pulling! We went down some neighborhood streets and along a couple of main roads. After every 10 minutes of pulling, everyone would take a break and some women would hand out free snacks and drinks!




Here is a video of the float:

Around 3:00, we went home for a couple of hours, then came back for the night festival. We brought our friends Nikki and Jason (pictured in the left). During the night festival, lanterns were attached to the float, which looked really pretty. We pulled the float for about an hour to the Inaba Shrine. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that it rained the entire time!


Once we got to the Inaba Shrine, we had a GREAT time! About a dozen other floats were there and many people were dancing and playing drums. There was a large stage step-up with lanterns all across it and vendors were lined down the street selling food. At the end of the night, we watched another puppet show then a fireworks finale! It had also stopped raining, so it was a perfect ending to the day.


Here is a video of the floats at the Inaba Shrine:

3 Days in Tokyo!

During our visit with Melissa's dad, Steve, we went to Tokyo for 3 days. We weren't sure what to expect, but once we got there, we were positively surprised! First of all, Tokyo is amazingly clean. We would walk for blocks and blocks and never see any trash on the ground! Also, the people were all very friendly and well-dressed. We were also surprised with how few taxis were around, especially compared to the streets in New York City.

Tokyo is obviously HUGE. The metro Tokyo area is the largest in the world with just over 33 million people and metro New York coming in second with about 18 million people.

Getting There- The Bullet Train
We traveled from Gifu City to Nagoya by local train, and then took the bullet train, known as the Shinkonsen, to Tokyo. To drive would have taken over 8 hours, but it only took 2 hours on the bullet train. Speed comes with a hefty price tag though...$200 per person round trip.

While on the bullet train, we passed the tallest mountain in Japan, Mount Fuji. In the picture below, you can see the snow-capped peak above the clouds.

Day 1- Ginza and Shibuya Districts

After checking into our hotel, we decided to explore some of Tokyo on our own using the local trains and subways. The train stations were EXTREMELY crowded and hardly any signs were in English, but once we figured out how the system worked, we managed okay! We began by going to the Ginza district. This is a very upscale district in Tokyo with many designer stores and nice restaurants.

We first walked around the Sony building, which had about 6 floors of new electronics on display. We had fun looking and playing with all the new technology. We then spent an hour just walking down the streets and going into shops.

As nighttime approached, we decided to take the subway to the Shibuya and Shinjuku districts, which are known for neon lights, crowded streets, discount shops, and arcades. We loved walking around here, especially since this is what we imagined Tokyo to be like! Below is a video of a huge intersection in the Shibuya district.

Day 2- Tokyo Disney Sea

Our second day in Tokyo was spent at Disney! There are 2 parks in Tokyo: Disney Land and Disney Sea. We decided to go to Disney Sea since we don't have this park in America. We began the day by standing in line for an hour just to buy our tickets to get in... we weren't the only ones with the idea of going to Disney for Spring Break! We ended up having a great time and went on some really fun rides!

Disney Sea is only 5 years old and is really beautiful. It is located near the Sea of Japan and has hotels, gift shops, and restaurants throughout the park that resemble Europe.

After a long and fun day at Disney, Frank was able to catch up on some sleep on the train ride back to our hotel.

Day 3-Full day Tokyo Tour
On our last day, we went on a 10 hour tour of Tokyo. It began by picking us up from our hotel at 7:30am. We then went to the Tokyo Tower where we were able to have a look of the city from the observation platform.

We had a nice view of a temple surrounded by cherry blossom trees.

Next, we went to the Meiji Shrine. It was nice to get away from the big city for a while and enjoy the peacefulness of the shrine.

Our tour then took us to the Imperial Palace, which is home to the Emperor and Empress.

We weren't able to go inside the palace, but we had a nice time walking around the grounds.

After lunch, we went on a 45 minute boat ride on the Sumida River. The cherry blossoms were beautiful along the river!

The boat ride ended in the Asakusa District, where we then walked to the Asakusa Kannon Temple. This temple, unlike the first one we went to on the tour, was in the heart of the city and really crowded. This was one of the highlights of the tour!

Outside of the shrine, we were shocked to see a group of Geisha walking down the street, as well as a group of monks standing around talking!

Cherry Blossoms in Ueno Park

We ended our trip to Tokyo with a visit to Ueno Park to see the thousands of cherry blossom trees in bloom. Before we moved to Japan, we had read that Japanese people LOVE the blooming of the cherry blossoms in April and really celebrate it. Once we arrived at the park, we not only saw thousands of trees, but we also saw thousands of people! Everyone was walking around and having picnics under the trees while eating and drinking sake. This was definitely something we will never forget!