Omatsuri!

I decided to combine two omatsuri blogs.  Omatsuri is a traditional Japanese festival.  On May 9th, I went to the Kanda Matsuri in Toyko while Henry was at his beach ultimate tournament near Enoshima.  Then, on May 16th, we went with some friends to the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa.  First, the Kanda Matsuri…my first real experience with the traditional Japanese festival format…it’s supposed to be one of the three big omatsuri in Tokyo.  The mikoshi (portable shrines) were very cool, lots of decoration and gold leaf.  Traditional music was played as the different mikoshi and floats were carried or pulled through the streets.  It wasn’t that crowded though (perhaps because of the location I chose) and I got a place right in front.

The Sanja Matsuri was crowded!  We went with a co-worker and a friend I had met through Jeff W’s family friends in Tokyo.  We stopped by a traditional Japanese restaurant that served a particular river fish for lunch, dojou or dozeu.  The dozeu nabe was quite tasty.

We also tried something particular to Japan that will be included in another post.  It was meaty and definitely different than regular fish sashimi.  My friend knew the owner’s son and this particular restaurant had been in business and in its current location since 1901!  The outside of the building was old and inside it had a picture chronicle of the progression of the years.  So…this restaurant has been in the same family for over 5 generations!

After lunch, we stopped by to look at the neighborhood’s mikoshi which would be paraded on Saturday and Sunday towards Sensoji temple.  They even had a mini mikoshi that would be carried by the kids.

It was very crowded as we neared Sensoji but very lively.  We wandered up to the temple and made an offering, caught a live geisha show and wandered around the various food stalls.

Before we left we stopped by to see the neighborhood mikoshi being paraded back to its neighborhood spot.  That night we also caught a movie.  Seeing a movie in Japan is expensive!  1800 Yen about $18 for an art house movie that wasn’t that artsy.  The discount price on some special days was 1000 Yen.  Then, we had dinner at Fireking Café, a Southeast Asian fusion place whose owner collects classic 1940s American Fireking dishware (it’s glass and more like Pyrex).  They had some very pretty colors though.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_King  The restaurant also used Kimura glass for their beers.  The glasses are very thin and almost seemed like plastic.  I guess it’s to give you a different mouth-feel and experience drinking your beer.

All in all a great day of Japanese tradition, modern American movies, Asian food and classic Americana dishware.