Two Festivals in One Weekend

Last Friday was Shubun no hi or the Autumnal equinox, which is a national holiday in Japan. It's a day to honor the ancestors. It was also a three day weekend. There were two local festivals within walking distance of our house. Nothing too fancy, mind you but fun.

The first one we went to was The Tottori Hamburger Festival. They feature stalls selling local restaurant's hamburgers. It's at least the second year for it. Last year the main event was at Daisen. They advertised lots of free hamburgers, but too many people showed up, there was a traffic jam, and the hamburgers an out. This year it was much smaller, outside the bookstore near our house. They had some live music, too. We tried some of the hamburgers, there were only about four different ones. They were ok, but as usual, too small and too expensive. One small burger was about $5-6. I left a little hungry, but the kids played a kind of fishing game and got some toys.

The second one was the "Yonago Keyaki dori matsuri", which means the "Yonago Keyaki street festival". Keyaki is a kind of tree that lines the main street, rout 431 near our house. There was some food and games. I got a free "Dorayaki", a kind of sandwich cake with a sweet red bean filling. But the main event was a candle lighting. They had thousands of candles in glass jars set up in the parking lot and people were invited to light them. We went with some our neighbors. It was fun. Busy weekend.