Friday, June 19, 2015

Hokkaido Shrine Festival

There were lots of people in Nakajima Koen park, so progress was extremely slow.

June 14 to 16 every year has the "Sapporo Festival" or the "Hokkaido Shrine Festival" as it is also called. During these three days there are lots of stalls selling festival food both at the Hokkaido Shrine and in the big Nakajima Koen park.

I have not seen deep fried crab meat at the festivals before, but this year there were several stalls selling this. It was good.
Frozen strawberry shavings were available at the school festival too, but other than that this was the first year I saw them.

There are also religious things going on. Processions of temple or shrine related people parade from one shrine to another while playing flutes and drums. They also carry or drag around "omikoshi", vehicles for the gods. This is one time during the year when the gods can thus visit other gods or get to see the town, not just stay in their shrine.

Motorcycle show


Plate spinning
Lifting "heavy" objects
Levitating

There are also other forms of entertainment. There is usually a monkey show at the temple, which is very entertaining. In the park there is a motorcycle show (very impressive), a variety show where people do weird things, a few "haunted house" style places, jumping castles for kids, dart throwing, cork gun shooting, etc.

Fire eating
Fire breathing
Balloon swallowing


2 comments:

  1. Allting friterat är gott!! :-) Dom där "Strawberry shavings" låter supergott.. Är bären frusna inan dom strimlas.. Tänkte om man kunde göra hemma ? :-) Miyuki & Luna brukar alltid gå på den där motorcykelshowen.. Jag har t.o.m. foto av Luna med en av dom berömda "dare devil"-killarna :-)

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    Replies
    1. Ja, det är frysta jordgubbar som man kör genom ett rivjärn, typ. De som säljer dessa i stora volymer har en stor hyvelmaskin, men det borde väl gå att skära med en kniv om man har tålamod, eller med skivningsmojänven på ett rivjärn. Gott är det.

      Motorcykelshowen är cool. Jag brukar gå och se dem varje år. Den andra showen där de ibland äter levande ormar och stoppar snurrande fläktar med tungan m.m. är också rolig :-)

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