Yanai Goldfish Lantern Festival

Last night we took the train south to the town of Yanai to experience our first Japanese Festival – The Goldfish Lantern Festival.  There seem to be festivals happening all the time all over Japan.  When we got off the train at 1745 we were greeted with this street scene.  Lots of people gathering, vendors selling trinkets and lots of food on a stick.

Yanai Goldfish Festival

Many women wore their summer kimonos which were very beautiful.

Kimono Girls

There were goldfish everywhere.

Goldfish

More Goldfish

Then came the goldfish parade.  This consisted of about a dozen goldfish “floats” each representing a sponsor.

Goldfish Floats

As it got dark the town lit up with wonderful goldfish lanterns made of washi paper and bamboo lining the streets.

Goldfish lanterns lining the streets

Then the floats came by again. As they paraded by, there was a Japanese drumming group who kept a strong rhythmic beat and an announcer chanting something.  The fun, crazy part was when each float got to the main intersection there seemed to be a competition to see who could spin their float around the fastest and the longest and still keep it in the center of the intersection.

Getting ready to spin and then spinning

Lots of good food to try.  Even octopus on a stick.

Our friend Steve eating chicken on a stick

Here are a couple more floats before we move on.

More Floats

After the big festivities we had the amazing opportunity to wander through the old part of Yanai to meet the parents of a friend of Steve’s.  As we turned off the main road we walked up this very narrow cobblestone street, again lined with goldfish lanterns.  I wish I knew how to take better night pictures, but hopefully you can get a feeling of how magical this street was.  This part of town is well over 300 years old with very small shops and restaurants.

Old street

What an amazing festival.  So much fun with lots more festivals to come.