Takengei Festival

...or otherwise known as the 'Dancing Foxes of Nagasaki'.

Alex and I headed downtown today to see 2 men dressed in fox outfits do acrobatics over two bamboo sticks. The Takengei festival is held the weekend after Okunchi. It doesn't seem to be as well-known though.

We arrived downtown earlier in the afternoon to have lunch at the Chinese restaurant that Okubo sensei and Sasaki sensei had recommended a while back before heading to Wakamiya shrine (where the Takengei Festival was going to be held). I love Chinese food!

We only had a general idea of where the shrine was .....we wandered around a little and eventually found our way to the torii leading up to Wakamiya jinja. By the time we made it to the top, the performance had already began. There was a crowd of people waiting to make their way up the stairs!

We tried to find another way up..and eventually found our way closer to the show. Unfortunately..we still couldnt see a whole lot. The crowd would start 'ooooowing' and 'awwwing' and we (and the people around us) would be ducking as low as we could trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening.

At one point, one of the men pulled a live chicken from his costume and threw it into the audience. I was happy about not being too close...

The performance didn't last more than half an hour, would have loved to see what they were doing!!

On our way back down, view of Nagasaki from Wakamiya shrine.

Should remember to come earlier next year if we want to have a spot we can see from!