Our little neighborhood had a matsuri parade for kids. The parade consisted of kids hitting a huge drum and pulling it around the neighborhood. The older kids carried a shrine on their backs. This was done to protect the neighborhood from evil and wrongdoing. Kids wore their yukata, or light summer kimono.
These are the kids getting ready to carry around the shrine.
Mia really enjoyed hitting the drum and wearing her yukata.
Here are the kids pulling the drum with ropes. The flower ornaments on their backs were given to them at the start of the parade. To the right you'll see a man with a megaphone, he was in charge of leading the kids. The week prior, he went door-to-door to inform the neighborhood about the kids matsuri parade, he also has a little pharmacy around the corner from our house.
These three boys are in Mia's class. They took pulling the ropes very seriously!
Mia, Rhett and Papa-san pulling their weight...
Rhett's looking very Tokyo-pop in his festival yukata. The kids were given bells to wear around their necks too, Rhett preferred them to be his personal chew toy.
Here are some adults that met in the park to carry around another shrine. Sometimes two different shrine parties run into each other and they fight. They fight by ramming each other and yelling loudly. It's all in good fun.
Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me at the evening parade. They carried around large Samurai made out of tissue paper that were lit up like lanterns, it was quite a sight!
P.S. If you want to see our friend Brian's blog entry on Mt. Fuji go to:
He got some decent video footage of the climb.
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