OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

AT THE CASTLE

As I wrote several times before, Kochi is a small city on Shikoku island, far away from big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. Life is laid-back here and we residents are a bit backward and old-fashioned. You think that Tom Cruise's friend was the last samurai in Japan? No no, we still have some here.

They need to take a break like this between their busy work shifts at the prefectural office.

Young girls get together on the street and enjoy chatting.


Of course I’m kidding. We are not THAT backward ; )

It’s our “historical fair” being held from May 1 to May 5 at Kochi castle (opening ceremony was on April 30th). They built small shops/houses that look like those we had about 200 to 400 years ago in Edo period. Yes, those who love Japanese jidaigeki (historical dramas) may understand this: It’s the time when Abarenbo-shogun or Mito-komon were around (???).

Set of a small town in Edo period

The volunteers recruited dress in the costumes of that time and stay at the venue from 9 to 5 for 5 days, demonstrating the way of life back then.


You see a well people used hundreds years ago, and a typical tailor's house of Edo period.



Some wanna-be ninjas were practicing throwing shuriken (ninja stars).




It was funny to see the crowd of those people in historical costumes mixed with tourists in T-shirts and jeans.
What’s funnier was seeing the tourists taking photos of those volunteers in costumes taking photos of each other. Well, I did the same, too.

Say Cheese!

There was also a monkey showman performing on stage. It was pretty funny.

"Hey, Are you listening?!" "........"

According to the program, they are performing twice a day throughout the fair! Must be really exhausting. I feel ashamed that the monkey is working harder than some of us Homo sapiens...

I'm going to come visit the castle again to see the concert scheduled on the 5th.


This wig and kimono for 2 more days, 9 to 5? Give us a break...

posted by obachan, 5/04/2005 12:21:00 AM

4 Comments:

Hi Obachan!
I enjoy reading your blogs very much...stories about your daily life as well as the food!!! I love the new green leaves design on your site as well. :) 

Posted by Lemon
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 5/05/2005 10:25 PM  
obachan;
This fair is similar to what we have in Massachusetts and Virginia..
I would enjoy seeing such a fair. It must be so interesting.
Your photos were great... Thank you. 

Posted by carlyn
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 5/06/2005 12:15 AM  
wei ting in osaka here...stumbled onto your blog and am very impressed! particularly by your kitchen and herb garden, since i love to cook and have my own spice garden - which unfortunately all died recently when I went on vacation and my friend forgot to water it!!! am going to try to grow basil again, is may too late for the kansai climate?
p.s. i was in kochi over golden week! went down to shimanto-gawa and had absolutely no idea that there was a historical fest going on or else i would have gotten my friends to go there too! 

Posted by wt
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 5/07/2005 1:57 AM  
> lemon --- Thank you so much. I'm happy with this background image that I made with the free photo retouch software. I'm glad you liked it, too.

> carlyn --- Oh really? The fair you have over there must be so interesting, too.

> wei ting --- Welcome to my site. You were here in Kochi? Oh I wish I knew that beforehand and could meet you!! Anyway, you're lucky...because I haven't visited the Shimanto river yet even though I'm a Kochi citizen. I lived in Kansai for apx. 20 years before coming back to Kochi. I don't think May is too late for growing basil again. Good luck!  

Posted by obachan
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 5/07/2005 11:28 PM  

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