Fall Festivals
Okay, so I'm really behind in posts so I'm going to attempt to zoom through my life these past few months.
At the end of the year I hit up quite a few festivals in November and December! Most of these festivals include illuminations (aka Christmas lights). Shikoku island is quite warm in comparison to the rest of Japan so you get to see both the leaves of fall and also some beautiful lights.
Our first festival was in Sakawa. A small city of around 13,000 it was absolutely beautiful.
The area was really quiet and nice. Not to mention the illuminations were quite spectacular. Because of the mild weather they were able set up projectors. These projected scenes across the walls. There were falling sakura, fish swimming against buildings, Van Gogh paintings and a massive Christmas tree.
After this there was the Ichijo festival in Shimanto. This is the biggest festival in Shimanto and one of the biggest festivals in Kochi. That's not saying a lot given how our prefecture is so small and has a low population. However, there were lots of food stalls open. This was also the first time I went to visit Ichijo shrine. It's the largest shrine in our city and it is really beautiful and modest.
Next we were off to Toshishimizu, another small city but definitely closer than Sakawa. It has only about 14,000 people living there. They're close to the water and there was a biting cold wind. However that did not stop the local yosakoi team from performing their dance for us. Yosakoi is a unique form of Japanese dance. The first Yosakoi festival happened in Kochi in 1954. It's considered to be a huge part of Kochi culture. They are energetic and wear happa and yukata. They also use wooden clappers along with their performance.
They were wonderfully vibrant performers. We didn't really stick around after that because it was an incredibly small festival and there was honestly not much else to do. There weren't even many food stalls to peruse.
The last festival before Christmas was a mochi pounding event. It wasn't really a festival, more a local event. It was at a local children's kindergarten. There were lots of families there and we all took turns pounding the mochi. I met the younger sister of one of my JHS students and spent most of the day entertaining her and her friends. The mochi we got to bring home was quite delicious. Mochi, if you weren't aware, is glutinous rice that is pounded with wooden mallets until the gluten brings it all together into a sticky, marshmallow like consistency. Nowadays most of it is done with machines but traditionally it would have been done in a stone bowl with wooden mallets dunked in water. It's done in the early days of winter because that's when rice is harvested. Mochi features in a lot of traditional winter and New Years foods. You're supposed to eat mochi to ring in the new year.
Those were the events I busied myself with leading up to my winter vacation. I won't be making a post about my winter vacation because I didn't really do anything worth...blogging about. Not that it wasn't completely and totally enjoyable! I returned to Changwon, South Korea. A bustling city with a very short history. There I visited old friends and my old school Kids Club. I met up with some of the parents of students and also ate a lot of delicious food. I say there's nothing to blog about because I just spent most of my time relaxing with friends.
It was well worth it!!
At the end of the year I hit up quite a few festivals in November and December! Most of these festivals include illuminations (aka Christmas lights). Shikoku island is quite warm in comparison to the rest of Japan so you get to see both the leaves of fall and also some beautiful lights.
Our first festival was in Sakawa. A small city of around 13,000 it was absolutely beautiful.
The area was really quiet and nice. Not to mention the illuminations were quite spectacular. Because of the mild weather they were able set up projectors. These projected scenes across the walls. There were falling sakura, fish swimming against buildings, Van Gogh paintings and a massive Christmas tree.
After this there was the Ichijo festival in Shimanto. This is the biggest festival in Shimanto and one of the biggest festivals in Kochi. That's not saying a lot given how our prefecture is so small and has a low population. However, there were lots of food stalls open. This was also the first time I went to visit Ichijo shrine. It's the largest shrine in our city and it is really beautiful and modest.
Next we were off to Toshishimizu, another small city but definitely closer than Sakawa. It has only about 14,000 people living there. They're close to the water and there was a biting cold wind. However that did not stop the local yosakoi team from performing their dance for us. Yosakoi is a unique form of Japanese dance. The first Yosakoi festival happened in Kochi in 1954. It's considered to be a huge part of Kochi culture. They are energetic and wear happa and yukata. They also use wooden clappers along with their performance.
They were wonderfully vibrant performers. We didn't really stick around after that because it was an incredibly small festival and there was honestly not much else to do. There weren't even many food stalls to peruse.
The last festival before Christmas was a mochi pounding event. It wasn't really a festival, more a local event. It was at a local children's kindergarten. There were lots of families there and we all took turns pounding the mochi. I met the younger sister of one of my JHS students and spent most of the day entertaining her and her friends. The mochi we got to bring home was quite delicious. Mochi, if you weren't aware, is glutinous rice that is pounded with wooden mallets until the gluten brings it all together into a sticky, marshmallow like consistency. Nowadays most of it is done with machines but traditionally it would have been done in a stone bowl with wooden mallets dunked in water. It's done in the early days of winter because that's when rice is harvested. Mochi features in a lot of traditional winter and New Years foods. You're supposed to eat mochi to ring in the new year.
Those were the events I busied myself with leading up to my winter vacation. I won't be making a post about my winter vacation because I didn't really do anything worth...blogging about. Not that it wasn't completely and totally enjoyable! I returned to Changwon, South Korea. A bustling city with a very short history. There I visited old friends and my old school Kids Club. I met up with some of the parents of students and also ate a lot of delicious food. I say there's nothing to blog about because I just spent most of my time relaxing with friends.
It was well worth it!!
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