Gion Matsuri Festival 2015

The Gion Matsuri Festival is an annual event that started out as a purification ritual to ward off sickness and has been going annually since the year 970. For the three days preceding the final parade, the main shopping district of Kyoto is blocked off to vehicles and is absolutely flooded with pedestrians. Stalls line both sides and the street and amazing smells fill the air – balls of fried dough filled with octopus, pancakes stuffed with red bean paste, frozen bananas, cucumbers on a stick, cabbage pancakes (better than they sound), fried noodles, chicken kebabs – the list goes on. The floats are constructed and set into position in the streets for the approaching parade. On Wednesday night, we went out as a group, got fitted with yukatas, and explored the streets together.
Unfortunately, by the time Friday rolled around, the typhoon had hit, but the parade went on nonetheless. We sat in our amazing front-row seats huddled up in our rain ponchos and sipping on our complimentary sports drink. It was the quietest parade I’ve ever been to. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder, but even when the floats rolled by, there was no one shouting, no audible fanfare. Only the sound of the boys sitting in the float jingling bells. The floats themselves were incredible – they were wooden structures and massive amounts of twine held the beams together. They were pulled by two long ropes manned by about 15 people each. To turn, wedges were placed in front of the giant wooden wheels. It was fascinating to see these things on the move.
We also saw one of our friends in the parade! His name was Mike and he had been one of our hosts at a tea school/museum just a few days before. He was a really cool guy and we all shouted his name and waved like loud Americans. I think he was also a little embarrassed but he smiled.