Spider Man giant decoration.
Sumo decoration with one of the grand champions, Asashoryu. This one was one of the best I thought. http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng/ozumo_meikan/rikishi_joho/rikishi_100.html
From another angle
this spun around slowly. Lots of the decorations had mobile parts.
Close-up of one of the lanterns on the sumo decoration
The balls with streamers have a long history behind them. Traditionally, they have been the normal decoration of the festival but through the years, decorations become more and more elaborate.
Yumi posing with her water. What can I say? She likes water....
Our dessert. I told her I'd have a hard time describing this to my friends in America. Hers is a giant pickled plum and mine is a slice of pineapple, a piece of tangerine and a maraschino cherry. Both are in some gelatinous, hardened syrup that you slowly swirl your fruit through with the chopstick. It's almost like molasses and tastes simply like sugar. Uh-yum!
Street upon street are lined with the beautifully lit up decorations and as we walked through, the whispy streamers ran across my head and sometimes, shoulders. The traditional ball and streamer decoration represents a dahlia flower and the threads that one of the Tanabata legend's characters used to weave.
More elaborate decorations.
The traditional decorations. One of the legends is that a daughter of a weaver stopped weaving when she fell in love. Her father, who relied on her to produce fabrics, forbade her to see her love. They agreed that if she worked very hard, she could see him on July 7. The stars Vega and Altaire are separated by the Milky Way and "meet" in the sky on July and are said to represent those separated lovers. Sweet, eh?
It was like I was a car in a carwash!
Our eating tour officially began with the purchase of some yakitori and two lemon sour chuhais. I decided on baby octopus and Yumi had abalone. Mine tasted like what I expected fair food to taste like--chewy and a bit fishy. She didn't even share. Some friend!
Piles of baby octopus.
This was only the first night of the festival and a Thursday. I can imagine how crazy it gets the next three days...
Next stop on our eating tour was at an Osaka vendor's tent. We knew we had to have takoyaki , (grilled octopus balls,) at some point so better to get them from the city that invented them. They were fab! Big chunks of octopus, gooey in the middle and swimming in sweet Bulldog sauce and Kewpie mayo.
Can't remmeber what this stuff is but it's Korean, chili-based and is full of veggies, egg and some rice things.
The "rice things." They're a little tougher than a dumpling and more dense. They were really good!
Our Korean entree.
Haunted House. There were a few businesses that had converted to haunted houses. We didn't go in. Maybe next time...
These are the strips of paper that children write their wishes on. Traditionally, they would ask for sewing skills, penmenship skills or good grades. Yumi reed a few of them to me. They asked for happiness, good relationships, good jobs and of course-money.
On the right, one of the typical Japanese ghosts. On the left, a Japanese carnie.
Street Fair Trash. Yumi: Why are you taking a picture of garbage???? Jessica: Because it's cool, Japanese garbage. Yumi: Why is it cool and Japanese??? Jessica: You've got a melon, Asahi beer cup, kaki-kori (shaved ice) container and the skeleton of a summer fan. That's Japan! Yumi: Oh, I see....
And then they turned off the lights.
At once, the electricity to the decorations was shut off, the vendors started packing up and everyone headed toward the train station with police tellin us through bullhorns that it was time to go and thank you for coming, now please leave...
The Fish-on-a-Stick tent.
Sushi restaurant.
