Drummers in front of the local shrine

Preparation by the local Buddhist priest

The men carrying the otoko-mikoshi (男神輿)

The women's onna-mikoshi 女神輿

Me carrying the mikoshi

 We also stopped by a couple of senior citizens' homes, and it seemed like the inhabitants thought it was nice with a little festival too.

A dragon entertaining an old lady at the senior citizens' home

 I think we might have stopped by more than 10 different places during the day, and at all the different places we received warm welcomes from the people living there. Trust me, when the day was done I'm pretty sure i had gained some kilos.. I ate and drank way too much, haha..

Lunch break! For the 4th or 5th time that day.. :p

 Also, we was really lucky with the weather! Both Friday and Sunday had been terrible, with rain poring down like in my hometown Bergen.. And actually it was supposed to rain on Sunday as well, but I guess we had good luck on our side. The weather was instead almost too hot, haha :)
Anyway, it was a really great day! I wish they had these types of festival more often.. I had so much fun! Not to mention that it is not often that foreigners get the chance to participate in festivals like that, so it was also kind of a unique experience. The people in the neighborhood was so welcoming, and some even invited me to come visiting them whenever I want.
Conclusion: Haradani might be situated in the middle of nowhere, but you can still have some nice experiences here:) Haha..

So, some final pictures from the matsuri:

The mikoshi from a closer angle

Apparently it brings good luck to stick your head into the dragons mouth..!

祭, the Japanese sign for Festival.

My neighbors serving us Japanese food such as yakitori.

Some more drummers

Again, the onna-mikoshi

Finally back at the shrine after nearly 7 hours of walking (, eating and drinking;p)

Some final rituals before the matsuri is over.

Peace out!

This Sunday my landlord gave me the opportunity to participate in the local sports day, or undōkai (運動会) as it is called in Japanese.
Since today, Monday the 2nd of October, is a national holiday dedicated to sports, there are usually a lot of sports days taking place all over Japan in the weekends before and after this date.
The sports day I participated in was situated not that far from the little valley I live in, which situated north of the famous temple Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺), better known as The Golden Pavilion.
People from the whole ward was participating in the sports day (Named after the place, the arrangement was called 金閣学区民体育祭), and I competed alongside with my neighbors in Haradani (原谷), the place where I live.
This was actually my first time to participate in a sports day in Japan, and I think it was quite exciting! I got to meet all my neighbors, and to compete against people from my community in a wide range of activities.

Haradani Hokubu

People gathered for the opening speach

Most of the competitions involved a bit of running, which suited me just fine. And since the competitors received some prizes depending on their results in the competitions, I actually got a lot of Japanese food to take with me home afterward as well. Lucky!
The age of the participants varied a lot, but I guess there was most kids or people over thirty. So I guess I had an advantage there.
The only time things didn`t go so well, was in the competition where we had to run and pick up a random paper board with a word for an object written on it, and then had to find a person carrying that object. Lucky me got a sign where it said 30 000 yen.. I mean, almost nobody goes around with that amount on them, that's close to 400 dollars.. So, I have to admit I lost badly on this one.
But still, I had a lot of fun. It's all about participating, right?! ;)

One of the running contests

The sports day`s brochure

Lunch break

The obentou we got for lunch was really delicious!

Members from Haradani Hokubu

After the undōkai we had an afterparty with the rest of the neighborhood where we had delicious Japanese food, and since there was still good left when the party was over we even got the chance to take some with us home. So now I will have great Japanese food for lunch for a couple of days:D I certainly wish there was more undōkais coming up:p

Tug of war

The kids are running for candy!

Ball-throwing contest!