Takayama Fall Festival

From the photo, you may get the impression that we were invited to this magnificent Japanese wedding. There are a number of common factors between our western culture and what we observed. First, the bride is beautiful. Second, she is the full centre of attention with a minion of people running around assuring that she looks he best. Of course he has this permanent small on her face for the audience. Third, the father appears proud and slightly stressed. I suspect that he is paying for this party.

Now the truth, we made our first attempt at being wedding crashers. We followed the wedding party to the other end of town at a beautiful shrine. There we caught up with the wedding, the groom's party and then were firmly advised that we were not invited. From the dress code and other obvious factors, it was hard for us to fit in. However, the shrine itself, the surroundings and the music playing from just about everywhere around the building, were worth the trip.

Back to the festival.

The small town of Takayama, famous for the quality of its sake, was out in force to welcome the tourists. There were few non-Japanese faces. But the were tons of people and cameras. Check out the photo. The major highlights were the floats and the processions of people dressed in traditional wear. We understand that there was an awesome puppet show, but the closest we could get was 100 metres from the stage.

It is refreshing to know that there are many universal truths. The truth of festivals is that it brings out people who spend a lot of money, and the hotels and restaurants who have this one week to make serious money, raise their prices by 25%. As one who dislikes crowds, I enjoyed the spectacle, the floats and all the local participants who made the experience.

Marcel ( we are now signing, so you can distinguish the point of view.)