The day after the two families met, we went to Hamamatsu train station early to drop off Elizabeth and Carl so they could catch their train to Osaka. The rest of us continued on to go to the Hamamatsu festival. The festival is every year on May 3, 4, 5. You can see previous year's pictures in my posts from May of past years. We went to Ayako's mother's area where we were given the local '
happi' coats with the area's symbol on them:
We had a bus ride down to the beach where the festival takes place, and then had about a 20-minute walk to the site of the festival:
Everyone enjoyed watching the kids playing their bugles:
As well as seeing some of the interesting hairstyles done for the festival:
We went out to the big field to see the kites flying:
Everyone was quite impressed with the scene of many groups flying their area's kite as well as the noise from the bugles and chanting. They also found that flying the kites was harder than it looked. Here's Jason giving it a try:
Here's mom and myself trying to control a kite:
And here's Barbara helping mom:
They also got to see the celebration of a new baby where their local area flies a kite with the baby's name on it and they carry the family while chanting:
Here is a picture we had taken in front of Ayako's sister's area's kite:
We also walked down to the beach and saw some of the groups relaxing there:
There was quite a view of the kites from the beach:
We returned downtown to go to the international food fair that always happens during the festival time. On the way, Barbara had her photo taken with some local girls who were made up for the festival:
After the food festival, we tried to find a spot to watch the parade of neighbourhood floats that happens each night of the festival. Here's Jason striking a photographer's pose to get some good shots:
And here we are before the parade came by:
The next few photos are of the "
yatai" floats going by:
Here's a close-up of the girls playing instruments inside a float:
And here are some of the people pulling the float and carrying lanterns:
The last full day that my family was here, we went up to Hokoji temple. We were given a good tour in English this time (I've never received one before). I found out that the it was a temple and shrine together actually:
Here's a shot overlooking the temple on this overcast day:
And here is dad ringing the bell at the shrine:
After visiting Hokoji, we went out for an early Mother's day lunch, since we wouldn't be together on Mother's day:
Here we are before eating our partridge on rice meal:
After lunch, we visited another temple, Ryotanji:
They have a famous garden that even the emperor once visited:
At the end of the day, we visited a local historical site in my town which used to be the border gate between areas and where people would have to show their passports (and prove that they were male) in order to pass to the other area:
On Tuesday morning, my parents went off on the rest of their Japan tour, starting off in Nikko, and Barbara and Jason went off to Kyoto to start the rest of their Japan tour. Ayako and I will be joining my parents at the end of their tour in Osaka next weekend.
On Saturday, Ayako and I went for a 2-hour drive to Irago peninsula to go for a hike. Here is Ayako, just before the hike, having lunch:
There were a number of fishermen along the beach fishing, but we could also see some fishermen in more adventurous places. Can you spot the fisherman in this next picture?
Or in this one?
We had a 3-hour hike along the peninsula. We had some good view from the top of the cliffs at the beginning:
Here is a shot of where we were heading:
At the tip of the peninsula, we took some photos by the lighthouse...and then started the long walk back:
It was overcast all day, but it was better weather than Sunday (raining all day) so I'm glad we went when we did.
