A small matsuri (festival)

The Tanakas (my host family from 3 years ago) had invited me to a small local matsuri (festival) that was taking place near their house, so I met them there this morning. They had converted a community center building into a shinto shrine for the day. Inside the building, they had offerings of food and sake for the gods (plural) and a shinto priest (dressed like you see on the drama Yoshitsune, if you happen to watch Japanese dramas) on hand. Kids and the parents involved with the ceremony were all wearing Happi coats and milling around. Then they had a small ceremony where they purified the spirits and then there was a lot of picture taking.

After that, the kids split up into groups (with a few parents of course) and were supposed to carry these little portable shrines around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it had started to rain, so they just walked around the town without the shrines for an hour or so and chanting. From time to time, an older person (younger people didn't seem to do this) would go to their front door and make an offering of money. A couple of kids had a lion's mask and a tail, would go to the person and accept the money in the lion's mouth. Then one of the parents would light off some fire crackers to celebrate the offering or something. The lion and firecrackers reminded me a lot of the Chinese parades.

Was interesting, though I wish it wasn't raining.

日本語：
（日本語が読める人は多分祭りのことを知っているので少しいだけ翻訳した。知らない人があったら、ごめんなさい！）

今朝、神主がお祓いをして、はっぴを着ている子どもたちが神輿を担んで、町を歩く予定だった。あいにく雨なので、神輿を担んで行かなかった。

獅子と花火のことは中国の祭りを思い出させた。似ていると思う。

面白かった、でも雨が降らないのはいいだろう。