Festival’s Galore
 TAIKO Group One thing I have to say about people from Hokkaido, is that they truly make the most of their summers, I mean let’s face it the winters are long and harsh, so we have to live it up while the weather is good.  Thinking of the coming winter and the average of 28 feet of snow per year, it is something that you know is lurking around the corner, and it is coming and there is nothing that you can do to stop it, for a boy from Texas it is a little unnerving and speculation abounds of how we are going to handle it.But you have to look at all of the elderly people that have lived here their entire lives and you think, if they can handle it, then I should have no problem. Hmmmm  we shall see.  One thing I am looking forward to is learning how to ski and snowboard, in fact we have a local ski resort called Canmore at the Kitoushi Forest Park that is only about a 15 minute drive from our house.  I am told that a 11 trip ski lift ticket is only about $20 and a season pass is somewhere around $200.
 Leader of the Taiko Group  So the weekend was filled with 2 festivals that we had planned to attend, the first one was the Higashikagura Harvest Festival and the second one was the Biei combination Bon Odori and other events all put together.  We had bought $20 in tickets to the Higashikagura Harvest Festival, but when we arrived there was not much to it, so we quickly sold our 2 ticket books to a person that was waiting in the ticket line.The Higashikagura festival had performances by the local Taiko group and the Jr High School brass band, and also a magician.  For the kids there was a tricycle race, and other games and events that they could enjoy.  We stuck around for all of the performances and let my youngest son participate in the tricycle race, the thing about competitions in Japan, there are no losers and winners, as everyone gets a prize.
 Making Mochi (smashed rice)  After the Higashikagura events we loaded up into the car and headed to Biei, which is about a 25 minute drive from Higashikagura, when we arrived there was a performance by the Goon-ja (Power Rangers) already in progress, but the show would be repeated later, the weather was getting cool and I suggested that we take a trip back to our house and change into some warmer clothes, in which everyone agreed.We quickly made our way home and back again.  The first thing we did was walk up and down Bie’s main street which was blocked off to car traffic and look at all of the food booths and things that were being sold.  We grabbed something to eat (sausage on a stick), ramen, and french fries. MMM healthy.  After eating we made our way to the stage and got a seat up front for the coming Power Rangers show. 
  Clown/Magician,  Mr Poi Poi The kids enjoyed the Power Rangers but were frightened by the bad guys (monsters), some kids started to cry which was kind of funny being that the monster looked like a large walking speaker box.  I think that all of our village showed up and all of the people from Shibinai got together and set near the street to catch the parade of dancers in costumes..
 Biei Festival  Unfortunately the battery in my camera died before I could get any shots of the costumes, I was really disappointed and will get another battery so that will never happen again. It was really windy and cold, and after the parade everyone quickly departed for home.  We really had a good time and I hope that you all enjoy the pictures that I captured before I lost my battery. . 
 Until next time take care all! 
 
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8 Responses to “Festival’s Galore”
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Interesting post. I enjoyed the part about everyone from the village turning out for this thing. About eight months ago I came to the same conclusion about a battery. An extra one in the pocket is worth its price many times over and probably doesn’t cost any more if you consider that the first one will last longer.
I definitely learned my lesson, thanks for your comments.
[...] by TeaGardner007 on Fri 05-12-2008 Ramen, from Scratch Saved by slashnwolf877 on Thu 04-12-2008 Festival’s Galore Saved by POCKYLOVERX on Wed 03-12-2008 FUUD: Tenkaippin Ramen in Kapahulu Saved by SimingJiang on [...]
Hi Charles I’m planning a DIY trip to Hokkaido this June and am scrounging around for more information on places like Furano and Biei. Too bad we won’t be there during festival season! Would you mind very much if I tapped you for more information on the Furano-Biei area? (By the way your contact page may not be loading properly…)
If I can be of any help. please let me know. I will be happy to assist you, or if I am free, actually show you around.
Hi Charles I’m really hoping you can advise us on whereabouts in Biei to stay. I understand that there is accommodation all around, in central Biei, the Patchwork hill area, Panorama Road and so on, but can’t find any sort of “area advice” online. Amongst other things, I’m wondering about accessibility. Is Biei small enough to walk around? FYI, we don’t drive or ride so we are most probably going to walk everywhere and/or take local taxis or buses.
I will get my wife to start checking some options for you. Central Biei from the sightseeing places are a good ways from each other, and would be tough to walk. Your best bet would be taxis or bus. Bus being the cheapest of course. Especially the time you are coming, there are a lot of tourists looking at the flowers. It should be easy to find transportation to the most popular areas.
I am usually free on the weekends, and would love to meet you, even if it was just for coffee. And I know all of the good spots the tourists don’t know about. hehe
After my wife gets some info together, I will email it to you.
Thank you so much - it’s good to have someone to “talk” to about this. We are planning to do lots of walking actually (we like gentle hikes) but we don’t necessarily want to spend all our time just walking from one place to another. I guess what we’d like to find out is whether we should in fact stay in central Biei (is that where the local buses start their routes? what about taxis - do we hire them from off the street in central Biei?) or is it alright to stay in, say, the Patchwork Hills area?