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Coming of Age Day and Ebisu Festival (The Hyogo Version)

January 11, 2010 3:50 pm

We knew it is “coming of age day” so we expected to see many girls in kimono on the streets but what we didn’t expect is to end up in the center of coming of age day and Ebisu (the god of fisherman and luck) festival. It was pure luck to decide to go to Hyogo looking for a new trendy area. Instead from the train we spotted something wich was resembling a matsuri (festival) so we decided to explore it.

First I will start with the photos from our camera:

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There were many different kind of lucky charms but we bought fukusasa – a bamboo branch with many lucky charms loaded on it (3000 yen by the way). Apparently fukusasa are typical for the Ebisu festival. Our one was plastic though.

Here is the video (I think the ritual is for bringing luck and prosperity):

All the rest of the photos are from our iPhones. They are mainly from the streets surrounding the main shrine where the matsuri was going on (by the way the name of the area is Nishiyanagiwaracho – just a few hundred meters from Hyogo JR station). On some of them you can see the charms they were selling. As I said there were many different kinds of them and one of our main task in the near future will be to identify them all.

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It was really reach of Shinto traditions experience day. We realized that we got wrong some of the rituals. For example you are supposed to tie your paper fortune (omikuji) to the tree only if you do not like it (we did it anyway last time as we thought this is the right way to do it). A lot still left to learn :)

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Samurai Coffee

November 5, 2009 1:31 pm

Here it comes:

Georgia (own by Coca Cola company) apparently decided to use the historical appeal approach to boost its sales. Cool but still not my favorite brand. And in general I prefer when they add small presents (toy cars) to the coffee cans as a form of promotion . Then at least you can give the toys to the kids and make them happy:) Anyway to the manga and Play Station heroes beverage’s can design now we can add and the samurai theme. Kampai minnasan!

PS. I took the picture today in the nearby Daily Yamazaki shop.

Update 6th of November – even more samurai coffees from Georgia:

For the second shot I even had to rearrange the cans but the shop clerks didn’t make an issue out of that – after all I am a regular customer there :)

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Kobe Biennale 2009 – lights and sounds

November 3, 2009 2:19 pm

It is opened until 23th of November so there is still chance to visit it. I don’t think there is a need to describe it. Just enjoy the movies and the photos. I must mention though that here you can see a very small selection from the exposition and in general you need two days if you want to see everything (the tickets are valid for two dates anyway).

First is the light sphere:

And the video:

Second are the light circles:

And the video:

The watches (just listen to the sound):

From this one there is no video but it was a lot of fun (at least for some of us:)):

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Just so you can not say that it was all about art I am presenting you and the tilted bar:

Yes it is tilted (first), second – they cook delicious curry and chicken rice in it and third – they have real Mexican Corona bear. That sums it all.

Most probably I will visit the biennale for a second time (the ticket is still valid) so you may expect an update.

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Rokko Island Halloween Carnival

November 1, 2009 11:17 am

The name says it all. Halloween party on Rokko Island, Kobe. If you have kids and you are in the area this is definitely the place to be during Halloween. Actually there were three simultaneous events – the Halloween carnival, the flea market and the harvest festival (merged more or less in one).

First – if you have never been on Rokko Island just take the Rokko Liner from Sumiyoshi JR station or Hanshin Uozaki. I took several movies from the liner so you can see them on YouTube. This first one is from Sumiyoshi to Uozaki station (from Uozaki station you can take also the Hanshin train – just keep in mind that the local Hanshin train is much slower than the local JR train).

This movie is from Uozaki to Minami Uozaki stations:

From Minami Uozaki to Island Kitaguchi stations (you can see the Osaka bay and some industries and at the very end you can see part of the park surrounding all of the Rokko Island residential area):

And finally the Rokko Island itself (you can see even part of the Halloween Carnival from above)

In case you need the Kobe Rokko Liner (and Port Liner) schedule and map – you can find them here.

The carnival is fun. There was face drawing, pumpkin gutting, Halloween parade and many other activities. The only annoying thing you can expect (especially if you are with ‘gaijin’ kids) are many, many unauthorized photo sessions. I am quite OK if these are really old obasan, ojisans (grandmothers, grandfathers) even though still I expect them first to ask but when this is a relatively young guy with unprofessional camera and pinku tea-shirt (and especially when he comes twice to take pictures), well – then you can expect a little bit gaijin behaviour from me.

Anyway overall it was a very omoshiroi (entertaining) experience. Here are the pictures and the movies:

And here are the photos:

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And here comes the flea market (at least you must agree that it is quite colorful):

And the photos:

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Obon dances and paper lanterns

October 23, 2009 3:16 pm

I just updated chottomattenet youtube chanel with many new videos (mainly from the recent HAT Kobe festival and from the summer JR sponsored Nishinada Obon festival). Here I will upload only two of the most interesting videos. They are both from the Obon Nishinada (Kobe) festival. The festival was very local but it turned out that everybody knows us (I suppose this is one of the advantages/disadvantages of being one of the very few gaijin couples in the region).

The paper lanterns:

And the Obon dances:
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Awamori – Okinawa diaries 1

October 22, 2009 2:13 pm

As promised here comes my first blog entry for Okinawa and yes it is dedicated to awamori.

awamori_3

Awamori – I like how it sounds. It is pure, it is strong and it reminds me about Rakia (a strong Bulgarian beverage). I like it. Just be careful with it. Some of the awamori brands contain 60% alcohol!!! They come in different shapes and forms – bottles, clay vases, clay shisas. I liked the shisas (on the big picture above), we even bought one of them for present. The cheapest bottle is just above 1000 yen (usually a glass of awamori in a hotel bar is between 800 and 1000 yen) but the big clay vase (you’ll see in the picture bellow) was 52 000 yen. Sometimes the awamori has a snake within the bottle (I thought this is only Chinese tradition but apparently it is not, also lets not forget for the very close trading contacts between Okinawa and China at least until the conquering of it by Japan in 17 century).

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