Wisteria Festival

Each year near by in the town of Kazo there is a Wisteria festival. It is held in the park next to the horse temple. It is a most pleasant and peaceful local family event. Over a series of weekends when the Wisteria are in flower people come and picnic and admire the flowers.

The tree you see here is over 400 years old, wonderful to think of all those generations pruning and tending to it. I paced out the area and this one tree covers 35 m2.








What's so nice about it is that its a very quiet and local event. No tourists ,except me, anwonderful local food stalls set up to help with the picnicking.



In fact the food was astonishingly  good and much better than the usual funfair fare.

 Charcoal  salt grilled Ayu, a small mountain trout. Incredibly fresh and sweet.







                   Grilled squid in a secret sauce.

Takoyaki, grilled octopus balls made with a kind of egg/dumpling dough. Always a favourite at these events.

 

                                    Fried noodles,Yakisoba.

 Lollipops and cheap toys.

Like France, there seems to be a festival or celebration of some sort almost every weekend. The local towns and villages take turns in hosting them. We really don't have this sort of thing, or at least don't do it very well,  in Australia. Except of course  the  Port Lincoln Tuna-rama, Tamworth Elvis Impersonators Festival and the Bundarra Goat Races.