Samurai Spirits

I'd been wanting to attend some festival activities here for a while now and I finally managed to take a little matsuri in. Not to say these were the festivals I've wanted to attend, but there are some similarities. There were food stands around, and people in traditional clothing... This is one reason I want to be around for the New Year. There will be a festival like I've seen in pictures and video then at the very least.
So on to the festivities. First was one around Halloween.. I should say something about Halloween in Japan. It's a little thing around here. No kids are going around for candy, at least not generally, there may be a few parties, a theme cafe here and there, and Disneyland Japan does a thing, but it's not the big production it is in America.
That big production is what confectioners here in Japan want it to be, but even then the displays at stores and such are small by comparison.
Heedless of any western holidays, there was a street festival held by a local shopping district that weekend, and so I went. It was really a small affair, no more than about a city block in length, but it was crowded and full of a fair degree of awesome and let me tell you why. Some of you may know about this little 'Power Ranger' thing. Well, it comes from 'Sentai' or hero team shows in Japan. And these aren't just tv shows, they come out and do live performance shows at malls and shopping districts and... It's something that must be seen. I took video of some of the performance, but it's so crowded I had to stand quite back to have a spot. Even then I had to move while taking it for the crowd and intervening pavilion. I'll get it posted.. it's a little large as is now. But it's an audience participation thing, the narrator, the villain, the heroes, they all call out to the audience, sometimes they even reach out to touch them.. I can't imagine that happening in America anymore!
But between seeing the last half of it at the first performance, and the first half at the second performance, I got to pound rice cakes, listen to some alternating fun and kinda weird music... Chatted it up with the guys from Gottsui (An okonomiyaki store I frequent) some too. All in all a fun time.. I took all video at it too.. I should've gotten some pictures, they're easier to post.
Oh yeah, there were world champion yoyo guys there too. *also* took some video of them in action.

So November 3rd is Culture Day, one of the National holidays of Japan. It also happens to be the Meiji Emperor's birthday. So at Meiji-jingu, where he is enshrined, there's bound to be something interesting. And indeed there is. Lots of people... ooooh, the people... This picture was a bunch of guys who were doing some sort of chant.. I'm not sure what it was really. There were beautiful flowers, what looked like some noh dance, adorable children in classic clothing... and did I mention horseback archery?

Yeah, that was really cool, and packed. There are martial arts displays going on all day long. I personally saw Aikido, Naginata-jutsu, Iaijutsu, displays of single katana vs katana and wakizashi, Judo, the combat simulations involving the classic armor was cool too... Seriously, you had to be there. and I've gotta go early next year... get a good seat.