Summer Festival 1

From late July right through to the end of August the towns and cities around are holding their traditional summer festivals. Last week I went to one in Kasukabe, a neighbouring city and this week it was the festival in Sugito, our home town.

They are the most fantastic affairs. Everybody comes along, at Kasukabe there must have been 100,000 people out on the streets.   I counted over 200 food stalls alone.


What is so good is that everyone joins in and they all have such a rollicking good time. There are dancing grannies, kids and adults in beautiful summer kimonos, drumming, bands and of course Mikoshi.









Mikoshi are ther tradional mini=shrines that are carried through the streets on the shoulders of different teams, they compete with one another and parade up and down for hours.

 They usally start at about 5.00pm and run around non-stop for four hours. It must be incredibly tiring as it is also incredibly hot, about 36 C and very humid at both festivals.