O-bon

O-bon is the Japanese “Festival of the Dead”. The Japanese typically return to their hometowns on that day to pay respect to their ancestors. It appears to be a rare occasion for a family get-together, since most Japanese live and work in cities.

I went to the O-bon celebration at Muikamachi (the next town. Yes, everything seems to be at Muikamachi!) Every year, they will light a fire in the shape of a kanji (Chinese) character on one of the mountains. Err, sad to say, I don’t recognize the word that was lit this year. It was like tian (field) with bi (compete) below.

Couldn't get a good shot but you can faintly see a word formed by fire.


Anyway that character was on flags (like the one above) mounted around the town and people were wearing hapi coats with that character printed behind. In addition to the fire kanji, there were little stalls set up in the park with lanterns leading to this stand where there were taiko drummers playing. The local folk (some in yukatas, even kids who looked particularly cute) were dancing around the taiko stand. It was nice. I felt that I was finally witnessing a traditional Japanese celebration (although this was quite small-scale and I will probably see larger-scale ones in time to come). Here're some pics I took at the night market.

Stalls lining the sidewalk (right of pic) and the taiko stand is on the left:

Locals dancing around the taiko stand:

Stalls selling food, drinks and little water-filled balloons for kids:

Cute little Japanese girl: