Fukui Fenix Festival 2008

Last weekend marked the beginning of August, as well as the beginning of summer festivals and celebrations. In our little city of Fukui we had the Fukui Fenix Festival. It is basically four days of traditional dances in the streets and on the stages, lots of lantern decorations, people of all ages and sizes in Yukatas (summer Kimonos), and lots of festival food stands. I'm not sure what it actually celebrates, and neither did anyone else, but it sure was a lot of fun.
On the first day we all dressed up in traditional festival attire. I wore a 'yukata'. It is similar to a kimono, but not as hot, and much easier to put on. I borrowed it from one of my students. We headed for the centre of it all to drink and be merry with friends. They set up a huge stage in the middle of the park, and people basically sit and watch the show, eat and drink with friends and families. There were sooooooooooooooo many cute tiny children running around in little yukatas, I wanted to steal them all.

We also had a visitor from Australia. Steve's friend Phil came to stay with Lesley for the week. So we basically dressed him in a Jinbe (men's summer outfit)and handed him a fan. Initially objecting to the fan for fear of his manliness being diminished, but after a couple beers was more than ready to pose for pictures.

Yes this is a traffic guard hard at work. I was just doing my drunken part to raise the moral of the underpaid city workers.

After the festival was over for the night we naturally headed to Bears Bar. And then I ended up walking home at around 4 am, minus one yukata. Try walking fast in one of those things.
A bunch of high school girls in yukatas.
The second day of the festival was a little more subdued. We walked around for a bit, and headed for the park to our usual spot to watch the hip hop competition, as well as some cheerleaders doing their thing. After the traditional dances called yosukoi were over, we hopped on the bus home.
Taiko drums.