Minato Citizens' Festival

...yes, thats' how they spelled it!

This weekend, I took a walk to Tokyo Tower. Along the way, I came across a procession of dancers, dancing towards Zojoji temple - it sits next to Tokyo Tower. Actually, there were two sets of dancers and the dancers below were dressed much more colorfully. I think that the person in the front actually winked at me, but she could have been winking at the older gentleman standing next to me who was waving politely.

After watching long enough for a few more pictures and a movie, I made a beeline for the temple. There was, indeed a Minato Citizens' Festival being held! I passed a huge Himalayan Pine Tree that Ulysses S. Grant planted there in 1879 and headed to towards the stage. A group of Japanese singers (a girl band) sang and danced onstage. They were followed, in turn, by a group performing Hawaiian songs, Indian dancers in traditional dress, and a Dixie Land Jazz band. If you look to the right of the following picture, you can see the Indian dancers.

There were many local companies, and government agencies represented there, each giving away some sort of knick-knack, along with ice sculptors, plenty of food vendors, balloon giveaways and paper hat creation stations. Unfortunately, I did not stand in line with six year olds to make a paper hat creation. However, I have already learned how to create an origami Samurai hat and will create a post on this topic soon. (It is cooler than you might think!)


After making my way out of the crowds, I came across another section where there were many more tents. A big green tent extorted everyone to take a pair of tongs along with a green garbage bag and go pick up garbage. If you did so, you were given a new and clean environmentally correct shopping bag. Of course, I wanted one! However, it was a difficult task to find garbage anywhere. Well, there was a garbage receptacle with four sections in it that everyone was using. Aside from that, I couldn't even find a scrap of paper while walking around with tongs in-hand! After wondering if an environmentally correct shopping bag was worth the effort of scouring the barren desert-plains of Tokyo for garbage, I came across an oasis of mess: a dining table with several families finishing up some snacks! Politely saying, "summimesan", or "excuse me", I held open my garbage bag and invited everyone to drop their garbage in it. Success! I also bought a bottle of iced tea, chugged it, and put it in my garbage bag, just for good measure. I would not be accused of sloughing off my civic duty and, besides, did I mention that I really wanted that environmentally correct shopping bag?


As I was leaving the tent, I watched the summer's thrill ride of the year, at least for kids and firemen:

A fireman would take kids for a ride in the cherry picker of the fire truck! I didn't notice anyone crying at the very top, but there were some anxious parents in the crowd! After snapping a few pictures of the ride, I put my camera in my new shopping bag and made my way back home.