Okkawa Float Festival

Prior to the Tokyo trip over the weekend, A and I attended the Okkawa Float Festival just outside Nagoya. I admit to being ignorant of the religious background of the festival, but the gist of what occurs is large teams drag enormous ornately carved wooden floats between two shrines. The route includes a short, steep hill, which for a tower rolling on wheels that look like something out of the Flintstones is rather perilous.

The surrounding streets are filled with food and game booths, and these festivals always offer tasty food at relatively low costs. I got a decent fried noodle / pork / cabbage dish, and A got a chocolate covered banana on a stick. In stark contrast to the Tagata Shrine festival (Giant wooden phallus, remember?) we spotted only a handful of other foreigners, which was a welcome change. It was arguably just as cool, but apparently a better kept secret. In fact, it's so underground that A's blog is currently the #1 English Google result for coverage!