Last Saturday my town had a kiriko festival. My principle mentioned it to me on Thursday, so I decided to go check it out. A kiriko is a giant lantern thing that is on a wooden float that people carry around. Yes not the most eloquent description but hopefully you can get the idea. I will post photos soon. These floats are pretty big so they have about 20-30 people carrying them at a time. I went to another kiriko festival in Wajima a few weeks ago, but this one was in my own town so I figured it would be worth checking out.
On Friday when I asked my coworkers where the festival would take place they simply said "listen for the taiko drums and follow the sound". So around 6:30 began hearing taiko from my apartment and soon after went out in search of the kiriko. I found one right away, but the scene was not as lively as I had experienced in Wajima. It was just one float and there were not any people around besides those carrying it, while in Wajima there had been many observers. It was raining out so I thought maybe that had kept people away from the festival. I decided to keep walking around and see if there were more kiriko around. I followed the sound of taiko to the local shrine where two kiriko were sitting. I entered the shrine and got a lot of weird stares like "why is some random foreigner hanging out here". I stood around awkwardly for a few minutes and there didn't seem to be anything going on so I decided to leave. I thought about just going home but it had stopped raining at this point so I figured I might as well walk around the town a little more. I'm glad I did because after that the night got exponentially better.
After walking and following the taiko sounds I found another kiriko. As I approached it I heard whispers of "Eh, Emma-sensei?!" Followed by several girls rushing over to me. They were some of my middle school students. I haven't started teaching yet so it was my first time meeting them, but of course as the only non-Japanese person they were able to tell who I was. I was really happy that these girls were interested enough to come over and introduce themselves to me (In English!). Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come with my class.
After that I heard someone else calling my name. It was one of my coworkers from the BOE. He was helping to carry the kiriko! So I began following his kiriko since it was someone I actually knew. Of course then his teammates were like "who is this foreigner?!" and after realizing who I was insisted I help carry the kiriko too. They took my coat purse and umbrella and put them in someones truck so they wouldn't be in the way while I was carrying. I think this is the only place where I would feel safe handing off my possessions to complete strangers like that!
So I helped carry the kiriko all the way to the shrine. By this time many other kiriko had arrived there and even some kind of large float with a giant Yokai Watch cat on top of it. Many of my students and their families were at the festival, so I got to talk to many of them. Of course since I helped carry the kiriko this meant that I was now entitled to unlimited free alcohol from my kiriko team. To me it seems a little odd to be drinking in front of students, but at this kind of event literally everyone is drinking (the other kiriko team members had already been drinking prior to carrying the kiriko) and in Japan it is allowed to carry/drink alcohol in the street, so it seemed to be fine. Though everyone wants to offer you a drink, so I ended up walking around with full cans in my coat pockets (I picked up my coat and purse from the truck once we got to the shrine. I left my umbrella in there since it was no longer raining, but then I never saw the truck again so... its gone now) for the rest of the night because even though I thought it was okay to drink I didn't want to drink THAT much.
After a while it was time to leave the shrine again. I didn't help carry it this time, just walked along and observed. I met some more of my middle school students and chatted a bit. At one point we stopped and watched a taiko performance which featured three of my students, and that was really cool. I think taiko is very entertaining to watch because it really is a performance, they put their whole bodies into it, they don't just stand still and drum.
After that it was time to move the kiriko again. I started chatting with some of the guys on my coworkers kiriko team who were not helping carry at that moment. After a bit they invited me to go get food with them and we went back to someones house (turned out to belong to one of the guys friend's parents). They had had a party their earlier before the festival started. They didn't know how to deal with me being a vegetarian so they made me some rice and instant kitsune udon even though there were plenty of veggies and things on the table (which I also ate). After a while the owners of the house and two other women came back and were like "who is this weird foreigner in our house?!" at first but then after learning who I was were very nice. We chatted for a bit and then one of the women gave me a ride home.
It turned out to be a very fun and enjoyable experience. It was nice to get out and get involved in the community as well as meet new people (and practice my conversational Japanese!). Festivals are a good way to practice Japanese because people are usually willing to chat with you and the atmosphere is lighthearted so it is easy to joke around and have fun. I would definitely recommend going to a festival to anyone visiting or living in Japan!
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