Golden Week Begins

It is now Golden Week in Japan. GW is a big holiday here in Japan. It's actually a combination of several National holidays, including Children's day (or Boy's day). It's a time where most everyone if off work and seems to be out traveling! The trains and highways are a mess. This is the longest period of paid time off for most Japanese workers.

We are leaving on Sunday to attend one of Japan's oldest festivals - Hamamatsu Festival. It is in a town called Hamamatsu which is near another Corning factory in Japan. We have some friends there that we plan to spend some time with. The festival started about 430 years ago. Over 2 million people are expected to visit the festival this year.

In the morning they do kite fighting on the beach. It starts with fireworks and then these gigantic kites are flown, each one representing a different neighborhood in the city. They "fight" the kites by trying to cut the lines of the other kites by using friction from their own line. I guess there are also the sounds of drums and trumpets in the background. I heard that there are thousands of people in attendance to watch and cheer on their favorite kites. Over 170 kites are in the air at one time and the kites are as large as 30 x 30 feet!

In the evenings there are parades downtown with these giant floats called Goten Yatai. Calling them floats probably does not do them justice, here is an example:



Again, lots of people, music, and commotion for the parade. We are really looking forward to a few days of experiencing some unique Japanese culture.

Also this will be Tracy and Sean's first trip on the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train). That is how we will be traveling to and from Hamamatsu.

Kyudo

While on a bike ride today into Kobe we came across a group of guys at an athletic club practicing Kyudo, "the way of the bow". It's a Japanese martial art.

These were some older guys with cool wooden bows shooting at a small target maybe 50 yards away. The guys would all draw back with the bows above their heads and then release the arrows one at a time. It was fun to watch - very old school.