We are just recovering from a wonderful weekend enjoying the Toukasan Festival or Yukata Festival in Hiroshima. Yukata are a kind of colourful, cotton kimono and the festival signals the start of yukata wearing season in Hiroshima.There was a really good atmosphere around town and thousands of people out on the streets. Hundreds of street stalls with games and snack foods lined Chuo Dori Avenue, including goldfish scooping, balloon fishing, grilled cuttlefish, squid, octopus, okonomiyaki on a stick, yakatori and many more. The festival site was packed with children in yukata and young couples indulging in kakigori, or flavored shaved ice -tasty stuff ! I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the kids in their yukata, they looked so cute and their parents were so chuffed when you asked to take their picture.
Bit of a difference between Louis Vuitton and these little stalls! Little bikes like the one that guy is riding are really popular here as they fold up and don't take up so much space but they do look a little funny when you see a grown man on one!
Isn't he just adorable?
Girls enjoying flavoured ice in their yukatas.
I don't know why these kids had giant plastic bottles strapped to their backs, I suppose you could collect a lot of spare change in those things.
Street vendor selling yummy sweet cakes. It's always a bit of a lottery buying these things as you never know what lurks inside. You could hit the jackpot and get a cream filled one or be really unlucky and get one with soy bean paste.
People in Japan love to make a V sign when they have their picture taken and as you can see they start early, this little sweetie can't have been more than three.
The weather has really started to heat up this week but it hasn't stopped me getting out and about on the green bullet (Martin said it's the slowest moving bullet he's ever seen). Anyway, cycling in this heat is actually pretty good because you manage to catch a bit of a breeze. On Friday I popped down to Shukeien Garden for the afternoon and the turtles were loving it out in the hot sun.
He actually fell off that stone just after I took the picture!
Must go and get the house shaped up, love until next week,xxx
Ps. Happy Birthday Dympna!
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