三田まつり / Sanda matsuri

All decent sized Japanese towns have a festival (or matsuri) once or twice a year. Last Saturday, the 5th and 6th, was Sanda’s summer matsuri. Like any gathering like this in Japan there are the booths selling street food, games of chance, and other related junk. Since it is the summer matsuri people typically wear yukata, a kinda less formal kimono. Many of them that are sold in stores for young kids feature Hello Kitty or other similar characters. Most matsuri typically end with a fireworks show and Sanda's 45min show was no exception. Since this is Sanda, on the edge of the really rural area, lots of country people came in from the rice fields, hence Sam, Dan, and I got some rather funny looks. We are already quite rare up here (even-though its only like one hour to Osaka) so the random odd stare is normal, but this night it was coming from everywhere.

Another thing to note is that last year there wasn’t a matsuri because of the train accident. If you remember in April of last year there was a big train accident in Amagasaki city on the JR line. Well that was the line that people take from Sanda into Osaka for work. Sanda is like a suburb town with many families who move out here to buy a home. Of those killed in the accident were many Sanda residents. Because matsuri are family occasions, the matsuri was cancelled last year. I think the city made up for the missed year with this years celebrations. Overall, super fun.

And, yes those are real live eels in that photo, and that really is grilled octopus.

I put a few comments on the photos where necessary. Click HERE for the set.