After the class, April and I took Steven around town and up to Handa Yama. While walking through town there were many people preparing for the night's festival. I had to meet up with Sakuma-san at the BOE for travel expenses out of Japan. And would meet up with April and Steve later.

At night, the festival began about 6 p.m. and ended around 1 a.m. Many people had come out for the festival. In fact I never saw that many people in the town before! It seemed as if it was the only night everyone came out of their homes and onto the street. During the event, there were several carts or floats being pulled and pushed. Inside them were a group of people banging out on the taiko and playing flutes. When they were "parked," the monks would slam into them with a large float carried on the shoulders of about 15 to 20 men. On impact, they would push the "parked" float, while the people managing that float would push back. Eventually, this made it's way down the main street to a large temple. Along the sides of the road to the temple were lined with vendors selling beer and food and other things. The goal near the end of the event was to carry the float into the temple. It took many attempts for the tired and drunk men to heave the heavy object up the steep staircase in front of the building. When they finally managed to enter the temple with the float, all the lights suddenly went out, signifying the end of the festival. I managed to get a lot of filming from the event. Someday, I'll go through it and edit out a little video. Sadly, my little Sony camera couldn't focus well in the dark setting. It was an amazing event.