Sanno Festival with Michi...

On Tuesday, my friend Michi invited me to join her to witness the Sanno procession in a nearby town.  Despite the rain, I had a delightful time experiencing a true Japanese tradition.  

The Sanno Festival is held for four days and at different locations all over Japan.  It is a time for people to go to the shrines to make prayers or wishes for the new babies born in the new year, and to celebrate spring.  The four days are filled with different ceremonies to worship different gods, and it is culminated by a long procession of 7 heavy shinto shrines carried on the shoulders of hundreds of men, dressed in traditional costume. 

We traveled to Sakamoto, a beautiful town a few stops from our apartment, to watch this interesting rite take place.  The cherry blossoms said their final goodbye...

Our first stop was a nearly 200 year old soba restaurant.  Soba is a type of thin buckwheat noodle.  This particular restaurant used to serve fresh soba noodles to the royalty who lived in the Hiezan Temple on the mountain above Sakamoto.

Michi introduced me to soba ice cream!  All my caution disappeared at first bite- it was SO good! 

Michi in front of the restaurant...

The procession of dignities from the upper shrine....

This is one of the 7 "mikoshi" or portable shrines, each with a god in it...

The festival seemingly focused a lot on saki (rice wine).  Saki bottles lined the steps of the shrine, given by donors as an offering to the gods. Interestingly enough, the saki was all opened and drank by the costumed men who later carried the enormous shrines.  Oh yes, drunk men with heavy objects on their shoulders...

After the first procession we returned to the soba restaurant for soba noodles.  This is Michi with her herring soba.  I ordered my normal "kitsune" soba, which has tofu on top.

Now begins the real festivities.

Here are men and boys of every age linked arm in arm, swinging and yelling, making a long walk up to the top shrine to pick up the mini shrines.

We took a small break to have traditional matcha (strong green tea) and manju (small steamed mochi cake with red bean paste inside)...

This is the continued procession of men down the hill after the shrines have been picked up.  Seven shrines in all travel on men's shoulders for nearly a half mile.

The way up the hill...

Down the hill, shrine in tow..