Okunchi Festival

The largest festival in Nagasaki, called the Okunchi festival, takes place every year from October 7th – 9th. It is a time when thousands of tourists descent upon the city… if you don’t like crowds, it’s best to stay away from downtown during these 3 days.

So today was the last day of the festival, and since neither Maki nor Erica have ever attended, we decided to head downtown. We drove to a train station in Isahaya and took the train from there. It's hard enough finding parking downtown on a regular week day, forget going during the festival.

The city is divided into many machi (towns/sections). Each machi has a special dance/float type of presentation. Every year, they rotate between the different machi who will be taking part in the festival. In any given year, there are about 6 or 7 machi who will participate. A couple of years ago was the year of the kokodesho dance, the most famous of all the dances. One of the machi from last year performed the dragon dance, which is also well known.

The festival begins on October 7th at Suwa shrine, the largest shrine in Nagasaki.

The mikoshi (portable shrine) being brought down the many many many stairs to the bottom torii. It is then displayed downtown for all to see. On the last day (today), the mikoshi is brought back up the stairs.. it's quite a sight to see.

It was the first time for me to see how they bring it up. Maki, Erica, Huihui and I got seats outside the shrine and waiting patiently in the sun until it was time for the mikoshi to be pulled/carried up the stairs. Running up all the uneven stairs with the heavy mikoshi on their shoulders, I'm surprised nobody gets hurt!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around downtown hoping to catch some of the other dances as they go around the city. We saw one called oranda manzai (the dutch twosome)

and kawa fune (River boat/ship). As the kawafune came towards us, I noticed one of the men waving our way...it turned out to be Taira sensei!! He's an English teacher who lives on the third floor of my building!

The main streets downtown were line with many stalls selling food, games, food, cards, fish and more food.

We left in the early evening, giving us enough time to take the train back to the car, and allowing time to drive to Taira where the last ferry would be taking Erica and Maki back to Kumamoto.

I look forward to seeing them again soon! :)