Kyoto - Gion Matsuri

Today’s adventures took me to the Gion Matsuri festival in the historical city of Kyoto. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kyoto is a bustling city seemingly comprised of tourists, ancient temples, awesome teeny-tiny bars, tourists, and a strange atmosphere of antiquity and modernism. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years, before giving up the reigns to Tokyo, meaning many important cultural landmarks are found within these city limits.

Arriving from Kobe by local train, directly into the heart of the city, I emerge amidst clamber and chaos. Unfortunately, the Gion Matsuri, one of Japan’s most famous festivals, which was taking place that week, happened to occur during a Typhoon. Police were everywhere in the metro directing tourists and locals alike where to go. Not sure if an earthquake or other natural disaster had occurred, I proceeded to head up the nearest stairs and…

There was no typhoon. At least not this night. Tonight was just hundreds of thousands of people having a good time in what seemed like a street festival. The night before the Yamaboko Junkō, the official parade, is known as yoiyama, where the festival places many of their floats on display for visitors to observe. Wandering down the street in a very orderly fashion (people with batons directing you), and not stopping for more than a second to take pictures, it was easy to get caught up in the atmosphere.

Aside from the floats the streets were lined with a variety of Japanese foods, trinkets for sale, and carnival games. Yakitori (chicken skewers), takoyaki (octopus balls), okonomiyaki (a kind of Japanese vegetable pancake omelette… thing) were all on offer, however, I decided to try barbequed noodles. Oh man… so good.

The festival was originally created as a purification ritual to pacify angered Gods who caused natural disasters. Pulled down the roads are wooden floats, depicting historical figures and ancient artefacts. Unfortunately, the typhoon was in full effect this day, howling and throwing down torrents of water, and all the floats were covered in plastic to protect the relics. I felt sorry for all the performers in their sandals and small uniforms, but glad the show went on as planned.

Following the Yamaboko Junkō, is a second parade, where Shinto followers carry a mikoshi, a divine palanquin, through the streets, ending at the Yasaka shrine. What looked like 300 men, dressed in white uniform, came dancing and jumping down the road chanting in unison while jingling and jangling the mikoshi on their shoulders. As the men in white garb sat down to listen to what seemed like a verdict for best performance, we who did not speak Japanese just stood there looking bemused and confused. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, wet, performance.

The mikoshi parade finishes in front of Yasaka shrine

At the end of the day, we joined in the parade, following the samurai... until the police kicked us out. Eventually we found a local izakaya that wasn't full, where we got more delicious food. While drinking warm sake and dark Japanese beer, we couldn’t help but reflect on the surreal performance we’d just observed (experienced really). It was a great, cold, wet, cultural day, which I’ll never forget.

A raging river overflowing with Typhoon rain

Stay tuned for more adventures in the ancient capital of Kyoto!