Life in Japan 2003/2004

Hamamatsu Kite Festival

Ever since I've known Benjamin Winter, he has spoken about the Hamamatsu Kite Festival that he attended about 10 years ago while he was in Japan. So during Golden Week, the national vacation time in May, we when to Hamamatsu to see for ourselves how good this festival was. Yuko, Kaori, Deanne, and I piled into Yuko's car and headed about 200km south to Hamamatsu. It was a nice drive. We got to see Mt. Fuji, which is rare due to the fog that surrounds the mountain. We also got to see a lot of traffic.

Our first day in Hamamatsu was spent relaxing from the drive and seeing the omikoshi (mobile shrines) in the night parade. After the parade, we went back to the hotel for a well needed onsen (Japanese bath).
The second day was spent watching huge kites and eating Japanese carnival food- BBQ corn, rice crackers, and BBQ mochi. Because Yuko needed to be back for work we left that night, and saw more traffic. But at least we had Yuko's car navigation/dvd/tv to entertain us on the ride back.

It was one of the best experiences I have had here in Japan. Thanks Benjamin for your stories and your persistence.

Sorry it took so long to post these pictures, I have been really busy.
Enjoy!

Images
Hamamatsu Gallery

Video [small]
http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video07.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video08.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video09.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video10.html

Video [large]
http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video07.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video08.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video09.html

http://www.ingproductions.com/japan2003/video/video10.html

Posted by brian at July 10, 2003 05:05 PM