The Obon Matsuri

Obon is when the Japanese people believe that their ancestors' spirits have come back to their homes to be reunited with their family. It is a holiday when families get together to celebrate and to clean their ancestors' graces. The ぼんおどり (Bon-Odori) - folk dance - is the festival that follows the holiday.

What to do at the omatsuri? Well, I think Alpha can all agree that the best thing is to eat!! Japanese festival food is absolutely amazing. It maintains the Japanese traditional flavor and foods but there are a couple of modern twists too! So the most common foods are karaage (chicken), okonomiyaki (cabbage pancakes), baby kasutera (little bread balls), kakigori (shaved ice), takoyaki (octopus dough balls), and so many more delicious treats!!

Tako! Grilled Octopus and Takoyaki (the dough balls) 

Here are a couple of fun facts! 

The majority of the food booths that are at the festivals have ties that go all the way to the Yakuza!

The popular drink "Ramune" actually comes from England! It was the first carbonated drink in Japan, and it was actually lemonade..so that's how they got "Ramune"

Another fun thing to do at the Obon Matsuri are games! Of course they're for little children, but they're still really fun and entertaining! One of the most popular games is actually fishing - nothing extreme though. Just like you see in the pictures, its a small little poop filled with small goldfish and black fish. You get these small paper nets and you try to collect as many as you can until your net breaks. We've had many pet goldfish because of this particular game hehe. 

My favorite game at the matsuri though is the balloon yo-yo! I think I just love it because of all the decorated and colorful balloons. It's kind of the same concept as the fishing game - you have a hook on a paper string and try to collect as many balloons as you can without breaking the string. I think it's such a great game haha I love it! 

There are tons of other games that are similar to the balloon and fish idea - we've even seen tiny turtles in the small pool once! But, nowadays it's really popular to showcase technologically prizes or posters and playing cards - so bingo and those kinds of games are making it big in the matsuri world. 

Masks you can buy (left) and a random game! (right) 

The most important thing at Obon Matsuri is the dancing! There are special folk dances and songs that are known and people dance in a circle (most of the time) and anyone can join! - It's really that easy. The moves are not complicated and it repeats over and over again. Also, there are often older Japanese women who lead the dance and do that basically for hours.

The Obon Matsuri is by far one of the highlights of the year! It's great to be with friends, play games and eat amazing food...I love the food seriously...I mean even though it's super hot and humid at this time of the year (it doesn't help that there are a ton of people who go to these things either!). I love the happy smiles, the dancing, the little kids playing and all the beautiful colors from the ukatas, the stands, and people. It's festivals like these that really make Japan amazing and awesome. If I could I would go to like 5 or 6 of them - I seriously would and eat and eat and eat!! 

I especially love how this festival can keep it's traditions with the games, food, and dances but also allows modernization. Sometimes you can see new interesting foods - think foreign foods like Indian and Turkish, or even new twists on old food! The games are also evolving but the traditional ones are still more popular - well, I think so. And finally the dancing - the majority of the night is for the traditional dance but often times they give the dancers and drum players a rest and play modern music. At the matsuri we go to - which is on a very foreigner friendly place - they devote an hour to foreign music and actually let us dance on top of the stage. Seriously, the best time ever. 

If you want to experience this event - which I strongly recommend - try coming to Japan from mid to late August. These festivals are often in major communities - so schools, temples and shrines, or just really big communities. It's hard to look them up online - it's really one of those you have to run into it kind of deals (well, at least for me that's how it happens). 

I love everything about this festival. I really do. 

Love, 

ALPHA