Yassa Matsuri festival

Last weekend was the big festival on the Mihara calendar, the one that’s in all the tourist brochures and on the telegraph poles: the festival known as Yassa Matsuri.

There was a huge stage in the big open area in front of the station and millions of stalls selling the usual festival type foods and people everywhere. They put out a big long list of performances throughout the afternoon but it was just so baking hot that there was unfortunately no way that we were going to stick around for them all. (These days the four of us are permanently camped in the sole air-conditioned room of the house: Daddy’s tiny office upstairs.) So we decided to go in and check out the massed dancing display in the evening. Besides, our friends Yusuke and Yoko’s kids were dancing in it.

The massed dancing consisted of an endless succession of different groups dressed in coordinated happy coats doing the special Yassa dance that has been handed down since time immemorial or some such. Anyone can take part if you attend the practice sessions for a couple of weeks beforehand (we’re trying to get Felix inspired for next year; Ruby of course is far too cool for that sort of thing). Many of the groups appear to be organised by workplaces. For instance at one stage in the video below you can see signs for DNP, a printing company with a massive industrial complex just out of town. I guess that explains the presence of quite a few sheepish-looking 20-somethings in the parade — they’d been roped into it on fear of instant dismissal.

The highlight for me was the endless succession of wacky decorated cars.

Like this one for instance:

This one gets a special mention for the hub caps:

Here’s a good all-round effort, featuring sensitive design aesthetics plus a bit of Culture in the form of lanterns:

And this one was possibly my favourite for the afternoon — after all, you gotta love a cow on a truck:

The dancing goes on for an hour solid and in the 30+ heat and humidity it’s a wonder the kiddies weren’t fainting by the roadside at the end. Actually it was we who were nearly fainting until we managed to locate a rather excellent ice-cream truck which saved the day.

On Saturday night it was time for the annual fireworks display. My fiendish plan to go and put a sheet down early in the afternoon was scuttled when we agreed to hook up with friends and go together. However by lucky chance Felix spotted a friend on the riverbank who, incredibly, had space left on his blanket for all six of us so we ended up with prime seats for the show.

And what a show it was, lasting 50 minutes and featuring all manner of interesting stuff to watch. I realised later that it’s been many many years since I’ve seen a proper fireworks display up close so I’ve got nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was great. However we’re told that the City of Mihara apparently only has a modest budget for fireworks (let alone anything else) and the advertised total of 6,500 fireworks, as stated proudly in the leaflets, is considered pretty ordinary as fireworks shows go. Onomichi up the road, for instance, has over 11,000 in their show. Next year we’ll have to go see that one too.

I particularly liked the way some of the big ones burst open into tiny pinpoints, which then fizzle into little fuzzy balls of light. Also you can see ones that somehow form shapes: a heart, a star, circles. Eleni reckons she saw a fish at one stage but I reckon the flashing lights were getting to her.

After the firework we were stuck in the temporary car park trying to get out like the rest of humanity for A WHOLE HOUR which kind of put a damper on things, but only slightly.

So that’s our big dose of culture for the year. And our Yassa Matsuri goals for next year are as follows:

• Get Felix into the dancing parade
• See as many other fireworks shows as possible, including Onomichi and possibly the neighbouring island of Setoda
• Find a better place to park.