Kitakyushu Kokura Taiko Drum Festival

On Saturday (7/21/12) Nick and I went to a Taiko Drum Festival in Kokura (which is a city near Fukuoka, on the Southern main island, Kyushu. Kokura is the old name for the city, now it is called Kitakyushu but they use the two names interchangeably as far as I could tell). The festival was from 3:30 to 7 and we took a bus from base down there and arrived at 2. They threatened to cancel the festival if it was raining and it had been raining on and off all afternoon. It was even raining at 3:29 but then, literally at 3:30 on the dot, they fired some shots to signify the start of the festival and the rain stopped. How cooperative! (We must be in Japan.) So lucky for us, the festival was not called off and here are some pictures of it!

Before it started raining when we first got there, we explored this park/shrine area.

The park was smack in the middle of this built up area so it was quite quintessentailly Japan: the old/traditional toriis in the shrine area and then this ultra-modern mall as the backdrop.

 The juxtaposition once again: the parked car in the foreground and the ancient castle in the background.

 From the park we could see the back of the vendor's tents.

As we explored, we found this cool photo op of the castle moat.

Some performers preparing their float. As we later found out, this was less of a festival and more of a parade of floats like this one that all had Taiko drums on them.

 Me, the moat, and the castle.

It started to rain then so we sought shelter in the mall. (There were these little kids playing in the fountain and it made me wish it was more socially acceptable to photograph strangers!) Looks just like a regular mall, though, yeah?

Wrong! It was 10 stories tall! With 3 adjoining buildings!

The view from the top.

The view of the castle from the 5th floor's rooftop garden area.

Also on the 5th floor, we found a wedding chapel!

 We couldn't quite figure out this sign which was out front of a store full of those photo booths that give you the instant strip of photos. Our best guess is that you must be in co-ed or girl groups. Guys can't go in the photo booths with just guys?

Nick won a cute cat thing from a store full of claw-games. He's so proud.

Another store full of photo booths

We got hungry so we ventured back out to the festival area to find some food from the vendors. Nick found a banana covered in chocolate covered in sprinkles. On a stick.

The festival was actually getting underway now so we stopped to watch for a bit. There were bleachers set up on both sides of this red carpet area but it was 2000 yen (so like $30) to sit on them. We chose to stand for free. It apparently was some sort of competition and I think this area was where the judging happened but since it was a parade that went on for 3.5 hours, we found lots of other areas to get great views from.

All the floats were pulled by groups of about 20 people, aged ~3 to ~75 from the looks of them. We couldn't figure out if they were schools or families or what. And they all dressed in matching outfits.

The red carpet/judging area from the other side.

The first float of the day.

This is a video we took of the parade. It captures the cacophony pretty well. Add in the noise of some really, REALLY loud cicadas and you've got the gist of it.

So we got a little bored and went to find some more food. Nick found his favorite: yakitori! Yakitori is the sauce they use to cover this meat (chicken) on a stick.

I found some steamed meat buns- yum! I also found some bacon wrapped rice which was tres delicious but did not photograph it.

Then the sun came out and since it had been raining all morning it was unbelievably muggy so we went in search of some A/C. On the way we found a neat volcano fountain. So I stood dorkily by it while Nick captured the photo. 

Back inside the mall we found, among many other things, a store selling Minntonka moccasins (MN represent!), a whole display of purses specifically being sold toward men (so m-urses, you might say), a movie theater, an art gallery, an art museum and this toy store. This peach man freaked us out.

This was written on a towel of some sort. I hope it was a face towel. For Miffy?

Sufficiently cooled off, we ventured back outside and found some more vendors and where all the performers were hanging out before their turn.

A haunted house. We did not go in.

This captures how the floats were pulled.

Miscellaneous images of the parade.

This was our favorite float.

This one was cool because the lanterns were lit up.

Cutest baby ever!

Found some candied strawberries.

Creepiest float.

After we got bored of watching the parade, we went up to the castle area and found some more vendors (these ones selling beer ;) ), tables, and a stage where there were actual taiko performances going on. SO we took a load off and spent the last hour of the trip sipping cold beverages and enjoying the show.

Video of part of a performance.

Li'l baby playin taiko! Super kawaii!! (Cute)

 

And then it was time to go. It was a 3 hour bus ride back to base and we realized maybe those adult beverages had been  mistake because about 45 minutes into the drive, we had to pee so bad our kidneys hurt! Luckily we made a pit stop halfway home or I probably would have exploded!

And I'll end on that. Ta for now!