As we walked out the door, my husband suggested we take umbrellas, just in case it decided to rain. There was rain in the forecast, but we didn't know if it would really rain on us.
Just as we arrived at the festival, it started to downpour on us. It took less than a minute for people to be soaked. But it didn't seem to dampen the festive mood. We hurriedly opened our umbrellas, but our shoes were still full of water in no time.
People toasted the start of the festival with paper cups of sake (pronounced saw-kay). There were mikoshi (portable shrines) in the street, lined up like parade floats, and people were milling around getting ready to carry them down the street.
As the rain continued, we wandered through the booths scattered around the shrine grounds. The food booths were enticing - yakitori (skewered chicken), karrage (fried chicken), grilled squid, yakisoba, okonomiyaki (savory cabbage and pork pancake), as well as treats. My son eyed all the kid booths with games.
We ended up huddled under a cover for a while when the weather app told us the rains would only last for 15 minutes. There were many people, some dressed in yukata, joining us. Once the downpour was done, we headed back out to enjoy the matsuri.
Soon, we decided to go find the parade. In my opinion, it is the best part of the matsuri. It is so fun to watch the teams of people working together to get the mikoshi from one place to another. As I was enjoying the sight, I noticed the varied age difference in the people carrying the portable shrine. It really had an impact on me as I love seeing older people sharing traditions with younger people.
We had a lot of fun watching the festivities. There's nothing quite like a Japanese matsuri.
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