This was a festival in
Kanda (about 15 minutes from our house) we went to back in May. I'm really behind in posting, sorry. We took lots of good pictures here, so I'm splitting it into two posts. Much like the other festivals, this one had a parade through the streets, ending at a shine. But this one had floats in addition to the
mikoshi (portable shrines).
How utterly terrifying is that? Imagine it coming straight at you. I snapped the picture and then quickly retreated before she could eat me.
After the parade through the streets, each float, shine, and group comes to the shrine to be blessed by the priests. This is up near the front of the shrine. We ended up in a really good spot via sheer dumb luck.
A couple of floats in the parade. The big brownish-black thing is a whale and that's a Chinese dragon in the front. It was
really crowded (surprise, surprise).
This is actually not a great picture because you can't see how tall this thing is. It's huge. I'm not great at spatial measurement, but it was a good 2 stories. Maybe 3. It's another type of shrine that can be pulled on the streets in a parade. This one was parked, though. They might only bring it out on special occasions. It looks really heavy. We saw a replica like this at the
Edo-Tokyo Museum and it showed this being pulled by about 50-60 men. So yeah, heavy.
This is the entrance to the shrine. Lots of people.
The main building of the shrine. Cool picture, huh? I can't remember who took that one. It might have been Gen, because I started to get irritated by being shoved around so I gave up the camera temporarily and went off to pout. If you ever need to get anywhere in Japan in a hurry, get behind a feisty
oba-
san (grandma). She'll clear the path!
This was a festival in Kanda (about 15 minutes from our house) we went to back in May. I'm really behind in posting, sorry. We took lots of good pictures here, so I'm splitting it into two posts. Much like the other festivals, this one had a parade through the streets, ending at a shine. But this one had floats in addition to the mikoshi (portable shrines).
How utterly terrifying is that? Imagine it coming straight at you. I snapped the picture and then quickly retreated before she could eat me.
After the parade through the streets, each float, shine, and group comes to the shrine to be blessed by the priests. This is up near the front of the shrine. We ended up in a really good spot via sheer dumb luck.
A couple of floats in the parade. The big brownish-black thing is a whale and that's a Chinese dragon in the front. It was really crowded (surprise, surprise). 
This is actually not a great picture because you can't see how tall this thing is. It's huge. I'm not great at spatial measurement, but it was a good 2 stories. Maybe 3. It's another type of shrine that can be pulled on the streets in a parade. This one was parked, though. They might only bring it out on special occasions. It looks really heavy. We saw a replica like this at the Edo-Tokyo Museum and it showed this being pulled by about 50-60 men. So yeah, heavy.
This is the entrance to the shrine. Lots of people. 
The main building of the shrine. Cool picture, huh? I can't remember who took that one. It might have been Gen, because I started to get irritated by being shoved around so I gave up the camera temporarily and went off to pout. If you ever need to get anywhere in Japan in a hurry, get behind a feisty oba-san (grandma). She'll clear the path!
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