Takayama Spring Festival

Apologies on the lateness of this post. I had actually written up most of it the night of the festival but was literally falling asleep at my computer as I was typing, which I interpreted as a good sign I should go to bed. And then, well, you know me. I put it off ^_^ heh heh heh. eh?

So, last Monday and Tuesday was the Spring Festival here in Takayama, one of two annual events that draw a massive amount of people to our, relatively, sleepy town. I've gotten so used to being one of only a few foreigners in this area that it is quite a strange experience to be surrounded by so many non-Japanese people, ha ha ha

Mom and Fritz were both in town and had been doing plenty of sight seeing, with me that weekend and then on their own during the day that day while I was at work. They managed to cover quite a lot of ground during the day and were pretty beat by the time I met up with them (and Fritz has the pictures to prove it!), and we were all famished so our first priority was... festival food!

Fritz with okonomiyaki and Mom with one of those fabulous baked potatoes

mmmm... tako yaki

Sandi with frozen pineapple


I also ran into some of my former 3 nen sei (9th graders) from KJH at the festival, which was such an awesome surprise! They all go to school in Takayama so I never get to see them anymore (we never ride the same train), but one enterprising young lass convinced me to swap phone emails with her, then promptly informed me she would kindly share my address with the rest of them so we could all keep in touch. Hahahahahaha.....um... actually I am happy to keep in touch with them so it's all good ^_^ I've actually seen several of my students, both from Miya and Kuguno, at the recent festivals (this one in Takayama and another one I just went to this weekend in Furukawa). But I digress. On with the pictures!

We wandered the festival stalls for a while, saw some fabulously-clad shop keepers

and would you believe right before I wanted to take this picture there was hardly anybody walking that part of the sidewalk and the second I took the camera out *woosh!* this enormous crowd comes barrelling through. Ha ha ha, we had to wait for at least a couple minutes to get a break big enough, and when it finally happened the guy on the left was waving me to "hurry up!" and take it :D

Turtles!!!! How often do you see baby turtles swimming around in tanks at festivals in the US? hmmmm?!

They were so cute! I really wanted one. And they sold out FAST too! I saw them at the festival in Furukawa yesterday too and had to really restrain myself not to go home with one.


The main attraction of the Takayama Festival, both in fall and spring, are the floats that they have. They actually have different floats for both festivals, but the basic design of them is the same. One of my English teachers told me he thought the spring floats actually have nicer woodwork than the fall ones do. To me, they all look the same

You can compare this with the floats in this post from last fall.

This was with my friends Dominique and Sandi; Mom and Fritz had both called it a night at this point ^_^

Not long after this photo was taken Sandi and I decided we'd had enough of being squashed in the herd of people watching the floats and decided to head back to the stalls where we met up with most of the other ALTs in Takayama. And I saw more of my students ^_^

The last local train leaves Takayama at 930, and since Sandi had parked her car at my apartment we both took it back to Miya. We secured some good seats up near the front of the first car, since Miya is the first stop from Takayama, and I spotted some of my 2 and 3 nen sei boys from Kuguno (8th and 9th grade) looking a bit lost trying to find a place to sit or stand and waved them over. These are some of my favorite students, a bit rowdy and actually fairly disruptive in class but they do it in English so I don't scold them too much. They're a riot to hang out with and they're on the baseball team so I see them on a fairly regular basis actually. Though it's rare for me to see them in their street clothes... they all look like little hoodlums! ha ha ha ha ha ha. But they're all really good kids and I adore them immensely. And yes, they bought an air rifle at the festival and were waving it around on the train and nobody but Sandi and I seemed to find this odd...

Ah, Japan.