At the Shishihama Natsu-matsuri...

The first thing we did was carry the mikoshi to a different spot down the street.

Actually, I was asked to help carry the mikoshi at this time, so I don't have a picture of that!  So this is from a differnt time it got carried, but I'm sure it looked pretty much the same! (;  Soooo!  While the guys played some Japanese festival music (on a boom box, I think...), we hauled the HEAVY mikoshi down the street--chanting "washoi!" ("hooray" of sorts)

So when we finally got to our destination, everyone 'parked' their mikoshi, and got ready for the dance.  I was invited to join, but I opted to take pictures instead. (;  First, so little kids came out and performed a short piece on their drums.  It was so cute!  They even had a little band major with a baton! (: So the guys in the big mikoshi played three songs and the women and young girls all danced to it. It was very traditional-looking, and really fun to watch!

See that neat-looking kanji on the back of the happi?  That's the kanji for matsuri!

Some of the elderly ladies joined in on the dancing fun, too. (:  There were about twenty older women wearing these green happi.  Tomiyo told me that they were part of a special group in their neighborhood that works to keep the 'old knowledge' of their fishing town alive. Which brings me to "why are they even celebrating in the first place??" -- which you may be wondering!  Well, I asked Tomiyo, and she said that their neighborhood has always been dependent on the fishing industry there.

She explained that this matsuri was their way of asking the gods for good 'harvests' of fish that year, and to keep their fishermen safe. (:

And after all the dancing, what did we do?  We moved the mikoshi again!  I opted out of this, this time, too.  I needed to get pictures of all of this stuff! (: So here you can see the Ladies in front of the Jr High kids, making our way back down the street! You can also see the difference in their happi, too.  The younger people get the blue 'wave' happi, and the older wear the one with the checkers on it. (:

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