I have told you about the city festival. They are incredibly big and a wonderful spectacle. But I only grasped the significance of matsuris to the Japanese culture and how deeply it is rooted, when my host parents took me to the kindergarten matsuri held for their kids. So even the 4-year-olds have their own minature festivals.
It was one of the cutest and heart-melting sights I have ever experienced. Little tiny girls dressed in the Japanese pink and blue yukatas, running around from one attraction to the other. The festival was held at the kindergarten, which itself was placed in a shrine. According to my host-mother, the kindergartens in Japan tend to be placed near shrines to ensure quietness and safety.
There were many very cute games I saw and lots of food stands, but my favourite one was called Soba Nagashi (そば流し), literally meaning “flowing soba”. Soba is one of the Japanese kind of noodles, and the game, that cost 150yen (app $1.6) was the following: there were two bamboo half-open pipes/gutters, raised on one end, through which water was poured constantly. At the higher end of these, stood a man who kept throwing in the noodles, and the kids, standing along the bamboo gutter, had to pick the noodles up, as they flowed, into their little bowls with sauces and eat them up. It was quite a thrilling and endearing look and if not for my human size and age that socially barred me from participation, I would have happily joined in.
And as with all the matsuris, there were performances and finally the dance. This was the climax of the cuteness as I stood and witnessed the 3 and 4-year olds attempting to dance. Americans have their own idea of family bonding – probably BBQ or a road trip, the Poles tend to hang out on their dzialki (summer ledges), but to the Japanese, kindergarten events are these moments where the family gets together, the mums to exchange the latest gossips, the kids to play with their peers and the dads to play the games :). Well, what do the international students do then? Take pictures and boast about it to their friends, sometimes through the blog.
And here's the little video that I took:
