Takengei

This is part of the Wakamiya Inari jinji.

(The shrine where the bamboo festival was held.)

This is the mochi that I caught. The red and white represent happiness.

These are the three sticks of bamboo they were performing on.

The two year old climbing the first stick of bamboo.

Last night I went to a bamboo festival. The festivals name is Takengei. At the festival there were three long sticks of bamboo. The first person to climb up one of the sticks of bamboo was a two year old followed by a forth grader! The next person to climb up was an adult and he hung on the bamboo and did crazy things on them like hanging upside down. Then another person came up and they did a duo act. This time they used two pieces of bamboo. It is hard to explain so I put some pictures up for you to see. The performers were wearing fox costumes. Once at the top of the bamboo sticks they threw mochi (rice cakes) out into the crowd. The last performer threw a live chicken out into the crowd! I caught some mochi and when I got home from the festival I ate it. Out of all the foods that I have eaten in Japan mochi has come to be my favorite!