Kamezaki's Shiohi Matsuri *GW Days 1 & 2* (Day 2)!!

Sunday, May 4

So everyone woke up at, like, 7:30 this morning. Ughhhhhh. No. Not after we only got back at midnight. Exhausted, I stumbled into breakfast and ate more of those sushi and then we got dressed and folded up our futons and took obaasan back to her sister's house (she'd come home with us last night). We stopped so obaasan could get groceries and then she used the fact that she had groceries she needed to take home as an excuse to let us into a blocked off area near her sister's house so we could park closer, haha.
While we were at the grocery store waiting for her though, Sexyback came on the radio. It was super awks. But I don't think anyone understood what it was saying, so all was good, haha.

Back in Kamezaki, the yatai were all out again and the streets were buzzing!

Miya's and my favorite happi

When we got to the house, everyone from yesterday was there. This older loud, lady with a gravelly smoker's voice who was somehow related to Ken had come in later yesterday. And now she was back again with her young son and her son's wife and little daughter.
Shizuka's sister broke the news that Shizuka had gotten engaged in April to a Spanish man! Everyone was all excited for her and Shizuka showed off her ring. Yuko told me this was Shizuka's second marriage! And Shizuka told everyone she was 45. I was so shocked! She looked really young, but it turned out she was the oldest of her sisters!!

When we got in and sat at the long table (I hated sitting at it because it was on the wooden floor and we just had little cushions to sit on, so my legs hurt and I had no back rest), obaasan (Ken's aunt, the other obaasan) gave us some okashi she'd bought! It was monaka! What Keiichiro had bought me way back when we went to the temple that time! Except this one was already made and it was flower shaped! So cute. ^^

 

 

After we ate it, one of Ken's relatives shouted for us to hurry outside, because the festival parade was passing by the house. So we went out to see it.

Also Ken's cousin's husband who's in the matsuri brought back two ice cream cones for Miya!!

 

This float had a special name that I forgot, that means that the god is inside it, and the people carrying him are the god's guards, protecting him.

Miya's favorite float

 Then we had lunch. More sushi and crabs, guys. But I love that sushi, so I can't complain. At first it was just sashimi and crabs. Ken asked if I wanted a crab, but I didn't want to deal with opening it again. I don't like crabs that much, so I said no. And I guess he didn't think sashimi was enough, because he had obaasan cut up more sushi for me. So that was really nice!!

Then Miya ate one of her ice creams. Gosh, it looked so good!

After lunch, I went to the bathroom and when I came out, Miya and Yuko were gone. Ken told me they'd gone to buy taiyaki, so I should go too. I went out to the taiyaki stand and found them waiting in the ridiculously long line it's had each day, all day. Yuko asked me why I was there. Ummm? I just said Ken had told me to come. She was like, "Well we're just getting taiyaki. We were going to go back to the house afterwards." But when we got back to the house, Ken was outside waiting for us. Yuko ran in anyway to give one of the taiyaki to obaasan. 

And then we finally, went out to the matsuri for real. Today the ocean entering ceremony was later in the day. It was at 2. And after that the floats would move to the main shrine, that we'd passed when we first came yesterday, and redo the puppet show there.

So we got to go to the ocean!! I brought my flip flops with me and we headed to the sea.

It was my first time being to the beach in Japan!! It was nothing like Okinawa, the water wasn't too clear, there was a ton of seaweed, and there was hardly any sand (most of it was bordered by the sea wall, so there was only one tiny, actual beach part and no one was in bathing suits or sunbathing). But boy, did it remind me of Long Island. The sand and ocean were the same color and it even had jetties sticking out on either side. Gosh, I miss Point Lookout.

First float being pulled down to the beach

So many peopleeee!!

You guys! I'm standing in sand!!

Yuko said because of the climate (she meant the fact that it was currently low tide), the floats weren't going all the way in the ocean today. What?? I felt cheated. I wanted to see them like they are in the pictures, sitting in the ocean. There's a big old, black and white photo in Ken's aunt's house of them all in the ocean. And I wouldn't get to see it!
I asked if yesterday they had gone in and Ken said probably, since it was earlier in the day. Arrggghhh. Stupid traffic! We should have just run down to see it right when we drove in. But everyone else has seen this festival tons of times before so they didn't care.

At least the last two floats went more into the water before they turned, because they had to be placed farther down the beach.

It looks fun to be at the front pulling it

 

Haha, there was so much wakame (seaweed)! On the way down yesterday, Miya and I (well, mostly I) had created a new version of the "Curry rice" rock, paper, scissors game we play. You start off with "umi" (sea) and then "rock" is "kai" (seashell), "paper" is "wakame" (seaweed), and "scissors" is "sakana" (fish). Then when you both put the same one, you shout "shiomizu!" (salt water), instead of just "mizu" like in "curry rice." Lol it's fun. We played it a lot during our time here and I always won, because Miya kept forgetting she had to say shiomizu. All Ken's relatives thought it was funny and a cute game lol.

So yeah, here's me with wakame!

 

Miya and I had a wakame fight and at one point I threw a huge clump at her leg and when it hit her leg, she freaked out and stumbled backwards and fell over landing assdown in the water. Hahahaha. Her parents cracked up. And she thought it was funny too. But her dress got all dirty!

Last float!

Me with the floats!

Miya and me. I'm holding wakame lol

Ken trying to throw a huge clump of wakame at Miya

Miya holding on to me for dear life

Then we headed up to wash our feet and let Miya change dresses. Apparently she falls down every year, so Yuko had brought a spare dress.

So pretty!

We headed up to this big park area. Places to sit down are so hard to find in big cities, but here was a huge patch of grass with benches and picnic tables. It was amazing!

 

After we washed our feet and Miya changed, we sat down to eat the taiyaki. Yuko and Ken split one and Miya and I split one. 

 

I realized why the line had been so long. It was a special kind of taiyaki, I forgot the name, but it's made using this caramelized sugary thin wafer-y stuff instead of the usual bread. It was SOOOO good though! And then it had the regular anko inside.

Miya looking cute on the beach!

Me with the sakura float being pulled in!

Sakura float

Then we watched as all the floats were pulled up to the main shrine.

The first float - the one that the kids made the puppet dance in

Miya's float

Our float

We left after seeing our float because Miya was cold. On the way home, Yuko bought Miya a crepe. OMG it looked SOOO good! It had honeydew pieces in it. Arghhh I wanted it so badly!

Cute kid with a pokemon mask!

Adorable giant fish plushie at the goldfish scoop

We hung around at home, until it was time for the puppet shows. Miya was super exicted for them, so we all put our sweaters on and then headed out.

This time I got a picture of the doll on our float with its drunk, red face!

And it sobered up again!

We all sat on the steps of the shrine to watch the performance. At one point, I noticed the Japanese girls behind me saying "uwahhh" and pointing up at the sky, so I looked up and saw a "niji" (rainbow)!! It was so pretty up there with the shrine!!

Here's a picture:

On Tuesday, a friend told me I got a really good angle in this picture! :)

It's funny a while back in high school, I saw this short clip of an opening of Bleach, where it had a smiley face rainbow in the sky and I thought that was a weird shape for a rainbow and made up by the anime studio. But that's what this rainbow looked like too! Is that what rainbows in Japan look like?

In case you're curious, it's ending 30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHA9qIoA2Es

Then they got all set up for the top half of the float's performances and we watched the three we hadn't seen yet, as well as the the weasel one again.

The first float had a cauldron which all this confetti flew out of. It was cool!

Then the rest were all basically just puppets moving around. They were more boring than the bottom displays had been. And they were a lot longer...

Yuko bought us sweet potato fries to share, so I got one!

It was weird. It was covered in cinammon and sugar rather than salt. So it was nice and sweet and I really liked it!

And then we headed back home before the sakura one because Yuko was cold. Back home, we hung out some more with everyone and then had dinner. The lady who I wasn't sure how she was realated, with the son, talked to me a lot. She showed me pictures on her phone and movies of her little nephews in matsuri in Okinawa. It was cute!!

When we finished dinner, Miya had her second ice cream! She'd eaten so much today, I couldn't believe it!! And those were big ice cream cones!

Then she and I ran around hiding rubber bands from each other and making the other find them. Ken's cousin's husband played with us too. We also flung the rubber bands around the house, haha. It was fun.

Then, finally, it was time to head home. So we started the long drive back to Ichinomiya. For the first time ever since being here, I fell asleep on the ride back. I was just too exhausted. When we got home, I was allowed to shower first and then we all went to sleep.