The Final Of The Festival

The Hakata Yamakasa Festival finished on the 15th of July.

Elderly Lech

I went to a drinking party with some people, including my friend last weekend. It was a kind of matchmaking party so that I met all the guys for the first time. One of them saw me off when I had to take the last train, but he held my hand and slipped his arm around my waist, which made me sick. I was NOT interested in him at all and we even did NOT hit it off with each other! I immediately e-mailed my friend that I loathed him.

However, he called me many times. I have not answered, of course, but he is persistent. Therefore, I told my friend about him by e-mail and she e-mailed me back that he did the same things to another girl and asked her for her phone number many times after I went home. In addition, he did not want to pay for drinks although he was the host of this party. What a lecherous and rude man! While we were e-mailing about him, he called to our cell phones alternately. Ew! We should have kicked his ass.

Obviously I do not think that he respects women. Thus I personally do not think that he respects others as well. I really loathe such a person and never want to see his face anymore. We will ignore him for the rest of our lives.

Now, let's put him out of our mind. We should focus on finding out a nice and gentle guy!

The Final Rehearsal

The Hakata Yamakasa Festival is drawing near to the climax. I went to see “Oiyama Narashi”, which was the final rehearsal, on Saturday. Eight floates are carried and run through the town and vie for speed. Many people were waiting for two hours. It was tiring to wait under the hot and humid weather, but I really wanted to see it since I have not seen it yet.

The first carried float starts at 15:59. The floats goes into Kushida Shrine, makes a round of a long pole called “Seido” and all men sing a song called “Hakata Iwai Uta” which is a traditional song of celebration in Hakata. The only men who carry the first float are allowed to sing it. Then the float goes out of the shrine and runs through the town. The other floats start every five minutes later in order.

The right float is so big, as well as a decorated float, that I could enjoy the dynamic and brave running.

It was really hot and humid on that day but I enjoyed it. The finale is in the early morning on the 15th of July. I am going to see it with a few friends and really looking forward to seeing it!

The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival

The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival has started! This is an annual festival in Fukuoka held from the 1st to the 15th of July. They have two kinds of floats, which are called "Yamakasa" or "Yama" here, Kazari-yama (Decorated float) and Kaki-yama (Carried float). Kazari-yama is publicly released at 14 places in the city during the festival, and I went to see one of them at Hakata Station.


This is really beautiful. Each Kazari-yama is 12 or more meters high and weighs 2 tons. In the olded days, this sized float used to be carried. However, electrical cables had been wired since the late 19th century, the floats often cut the wires. Therefore, they had to separate the floats into two types.

Speaking of Kazari-yama, I hear that it costs about 10 million yen to make a Kazari-yama. However, one of the sponsors cancelled its cooperation and it endangered the continuation of Kazari-yama. Fortunately, officials scrambled to find a new sponsor and a few local companies such as rail companies and oil companies kindly agreed to observe the traditional culture. Then it was January that the continuance was decided because of the new sponsors. Thus thanks to many people's efforts and cooperation, this festival can be continued now.

Anyway, the festival brings us to summer! I would like to enjoy it as much as possible.