Festival time!

Well it has been another busy weekend for us here in Tokyo.

We were invited to a festival to 'help out' yesterday; this consisted of us carrying chairs about and such. Due to the language gap we didn't seem able to help as much as we could of, but we gave it a good go.

Now on to the fun part, the festival was amazing, so many different stalls to see and foods to taste. There was a large stage on which to see a variety of acts from taiko drumming to cheerleading.

The festival is a yearly event organised by the local community to raise funds for a worthy cause, this year it was for the victims of an earthquake elsewhere in Japan. It is amazing to see the huge amount of community spirit that exists in Japan, sadly something I fear we have lost back in England.

The highlight of the festival for me was the ‘neko bus’ or cat bus, made famous by the anime ‘My neighbor Totoro’. The bus was a large wood/metal/paper construction that seated about 20 children and had wheels on the bottom so it could move. We were told to dress up in any silly costume that we saw fit and help the bus on its journey.

We started by pushing the bus out of the park then lifting it down some stairs to get to the main street (it was ridiculously heavy). Then we proceeded to push the bus through the main streets and watch as baffled shoppers and shopkeepers watched in amazement and bemusement. It was very tiring but really good fun. After we made it back to the park fireworks were strapped to the bus and set off. Here is a video:

Neko bus video

It was an amazing and memorable time, my first experience of a proper Japanese festival and I loved it.

As always you can see more pictures by clicking the Photos link at the top of the page.