Baraki-Nakayama Festival

So my town is relatively small, despite being situated within the megalopolis of Tokyo (it's not really Tokyo, but it may as well be).  They held a local festival sponsored by the shops around the community (the lanterns in the video below have the shop names as a form of advertisment).

The centre stage was a drum, struck by various people throughout the performance.  Hopefully you'll get an idea of the relative repetitiveness of the song, despite the changing background music.  They seemed to be content with their accompaniment regardless of what the DJ decided to put on, I think they'd choreographed their dance and didn't have any backup plans for when the folk music gave way to a more dance orientated tune.

You'll also see the kind of laid back circle dancing that is quite common in Japan at these kinds of smaller festivals.  In Japanese schools they sometimes organise dances around a bonfire (often made of the detritus from the festival, wooden boards, signs and stands - that kind of thing) in which dances similar to the ones in the video are performed.

If they're feeling particularly risque they might even allow couples to dance together (don't think slow dancing, think a dance very similar to the one in the video).

And without any further ado, here it is:

Barakiyama Myoukouji

So this is a local temple - the name being that of the title.

I took an awful lot of pictures but only a few came out worth the time to view.  Obviously I took them in colour, but for some reason I can't stop making them black and white.  I think they look infinitely better.

This first one is absolutely my favourite.  It's one of my favourite pictures full stop; although the few people that have seen it are only lukewarm towards it.

Both of these pictures are of the same statue, the drinking/cleansing fountain at the entrance to all Japanese temples tend to have an interesting ornament, often somehow including the water itself (a fountain head, for example).

I've been to this place a couple of times and there are always fresh flowers at the entrance.  The one downside of black and white is that you can't see colour; amazingly enough.  Not so great with flowers.

As a side-note, it snowed the other day so I made a little video.