July 15, 2010

Shiozawa Matsuri/塩沢まつり

Draft beer (300 yen) and yakisoba (300 yen):
生ビール(300円)と焼きそば(300円):

These are the foods I crave at a festival.
Sorry for the ugly photo; the yakisoba is half eaten.
ともに私がお祭りで食べたく(飲みたく)なるものです。
見苦しい写真ですみません(焼きそばは食べかけです)。

Children pulling a cart:
車を引く子供たち:


Not just a cart; this cart is called an "odori yatai" (lit. dancing stall), where children perform traditional dances.
ただの車ではありません。この車は「踊り屋台」と呼ばれるもので、子供たちが伝統的な踊りを披露してくれます。


Center: Banana chocolate stall
Left: Okonomiyaki stall
中央: バナナチョコの屋台
左: お好み焼きの屋台


Two "miko" (female attendants), on the premises of Sumiyoshi Shrine:
住吉神社の敷地内の二人の巫女さん:

Shiozawa Matsuri is also called Sumiyoshi Jinja Taisai (Sumiyoshi Shrine Great Festival).
塩沢まつりは住吉神社大祭とも呼ばれます。

Ringo ame (lit. apple candies):
リンゴ飴:

My daughter likes them.
娘が好きです。

All the photos above were taken on July 14.
上記の写真はすべて7月14日に撮ったものです。

The following photos were taken on July 15.

Bokushi Dori (Dokushi Street), which is the main part of the site of this festival.
牧之通り。このお祭りの会場の主要な部分となっています。




Elementary school children, performing "Soran Dance" on Bokushi Street:
牧之通りで「ソーランダンス」を披露する小学生たち:


This is Sumiyoshi Shrine.
ここが住吉神社です。


Luckily, we got free waffle samples from a cafe, soon to be open on Bokushi Street (Aug. 11)
運良く、牧之通りでまもなく(8/11)オープンするカフェのワッフルを無料で試食できました。


Frankfurter (100 yen) and takoyaki (300 yen):
フランクフルトソーセージ(100円)とたこ焼き(300円):

The frankfurter was very reasonable.
フランクフルトはとても安かったです。

Osakayaki stall on the left:
左側に大阪焼きの屋台:

Osakayaki is a kind of okonomiyaki shaped like imagawayaki.
大阪焼きとは、今川焼きのような形のお好み焼きのようなものです。

The funny thing about osakayaki is that osakayaki cannot be found in Osaka!
大阪焼きの面白いところは、大阪には大阪焼きがないということです。

Images of osakayaki
大阪焼きの画像

7 comments:

Ruminating Roy said...

I'm glad Shiozawa's matsuri looks so lively! We held our own sort of late Tanabata here last weekend with a few people from an anime group and the Texas Shinto Study group. It was a blast!

Hiroyuki said...

RoySkull001: Shiozawa Matsuri is an annual festival, held around this time of year.

Anime group and a Shinto Study group??
You got some very interesting groups where you live!

Nerd Mom said...

Candy Apples (ringo ame) are a popular festival food here in the US. There's also a variation of them that are dipped in caramel rather than the red candy stuff. Yummy!

Hiroyuki said...

Cheryl: Thanks for making me realize that the "candy apples" are ubiquitous! I'm not a big fan of candy apples. Come to think of it, I wasn't familiar with candy apples when I was a child. I did some googling and found that candy apples were popular in Kansai (Western Japan), which includes Osaka, but not in Kanto (Eastern Japan), which includes Tokyo, where I was born.
Anzu ame (apricot candies, or should I say "candy apricots) are more popular in Kanto.
Images of anzu ame:
http://www.google.co.jp/images?um=1&hl=ja&rlz=1T4GGLL_jaJP325JP326&biw=779&bih=353&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=%E3%81%82%E3%82%93%E3%81%9A%E9%A3%B4&btnG=%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Nerd Mom said...

Anzu ame sounds even better than candy apples. I prefer caramel apples over the candy apples.

Curtis said...

natsukashii! It reminds me of the festival food that I had when I was in Japan last year. I'm a new reader who loves food and cooking and is interested in Japanese. Thanks for the post!

Hiroyuki said...

Curtis: And, thank *you* for visiting my blog!