yuuco's tekuteku diary

The days are getting shorter, the wind is getting chiller, I can't help feeling Autumn's arrival. We have lots of festivals in autumn to thank god for the harvest and our lives in peace. We entertain the god which enshrined in the shrine by showing lion dance with traditional music. Kozai, the place I had lived when I was little has a shrine which is famous for lots of lion dances at the festival. Usahachiman shrine is located at the center of the town, not so big but the air there is sacred, awesome and definitely different from others'. In the day time, birds and insects are always singing there though yet surrounded by a great calmness.





So many lions show up and dance wildly.









Lion mask! It's said that they drive away the ill luck of the year.





Kozai is located by the sea and a town of fishermen. So they also use big ship to bring the god. This is once-yearly 'God's walk'.





'祭', means 'festival'.





This festival is held on the first Saturday and Sunday of October everyear (3th and 4th October this year). Many stands will also be set up so you can enjoy this event in the daytime, too though I strongly recommend visiting here at night. A numbers of lanterns are floating in the dark, beats of drums and gongs are ringing, wild dances of lions... such an extraordinary mood! it will not be able to be judged if it's a dream or reality. It's really a mysterious world.

Torii-gate made of stone. Very big!














  

Can you see two little gold fish are floating in the jelly? This is not a candle nor a soap, this is Japanese traditional sweets for summer. The name is "Kingyo" means gold fish in Japanese. I couldn't take my eyes off when I found this because it's SO pretty! We have many kinds of seasonal traditional sweets. Kanten jelly which is made of sea weed is a very popular one for summer. This kind of detailed sweets are used at tea ceremony mainly so they express the seasons in the sweets. (Of course we eat it at usual tea time, too :)) I do love to see the colour, design, and the beautiful details. Yet it tastes really good! It's absolutely an art, I think! But as these are seasonal sweets, it's available for only short time. ;(



It's interesting to know what is each part made of. The water part is made of Kanten which is sea weed. The colourful red and light green stones are both beans and white ones are rice cake. Pebbles around those are sesames. Too cute to eat, really!



This is another cute sweets which caught my eyes. This sweets expresses fireflies on the grass.



I was really impressed by the idea. They put a black sesame on a tiny ball of yellow bean jam to express the light of firefly. Really poetic and it's just like a small garden in my hand! :)
There are so many others at the shops and choosing sweets is a lot of fun. They always let me notice transition from one season to the next. :)

I found these at this sweets shop. This shop is famous for "Ichigo daifuku", a rice cake a strawberry covered with bean jam inside. The strawberry is very big as much as kid's fist! Ichigo daifuku is limited time sweets during spring and winter though they have "Budo daifuku"(grape inside) and "Sumomo daifuku"(Japanese plum inside) instead in this season. Those are very juicy and pretty yummy as well, special recommended!