Gion Festival: Day 2

On the second day, we didn't get to the festival until evening. (Which was my fault for sleeping too late.) The big floats had already been pulled back from the temple to their starting points, but we ran into a bunch of the medium-sized ones. These were the kind with the dancers in them. Like this:



Every time the float stopped, there would be a new dance, and there were three floats altogether. Here's another from a side view:



And a short one:



I really wanted to get a good video of the men pulling the floats, but unfortunately it was too dark. I still want to show off the sounds of the drums and cheers, though, so I'm posting a very dark video below.



We ended up following one of the floats all the way back to its starting point, which kept us out until midnight. A few of my students were part of the official group, and Jamie and I even got to help pull the float a few times. Fortunately theses had wheels.















Everyone seemed really happy to see us, and it was a really fun night. I had no idea my little town could party so hard ;)