Last night, we had an amazing time in Tokyo. We discovered a festival/parade and also had another traditional Japanese dinner, in which I ate (and enjoyed) a dish that I would never have even considered before I came here.
The fesitval was a parade from one smaller Shinto temple to the main Shinto temple in the area. The Japanese have many festivals per year and we sort of stumbled onto this one.
There was a lot of chanting, which we were allowed to observe in the first temple. Following that, a large group of Japanese people started down the streets with quite a bit of fanfare, chanting and beating drums in rythem. The beat was set by the blowing of whistles or by dinging bells. It was amazing to see hundreds of people doing this together. There were usually two distinct beats happening at the same time. In addition, some of the people in the parade were carrying large decorative poles and bouncing them up and down so that it looked like it was pulsing. The poles must have been very heavy, as they switched people every so often.
Each group of people wore different colors, and we were told that they each represented a neighborhood/community. There were 20 "floats" in all and while each was the same it was an amazing site to see. I did not see any other Americans there, so we feel very blessed to have seen it.
An earlier comment posted asked something to the effect of "what have you eaten so far that you wouldn't have even thought of before this trip?". While a few days ago, I would have said sashime, that seems fairly tame after last night. In fact, I have had sashime a few times since my first night here and I love it.
Last night we decided to try a Japanese delicacy called sakura. When we ordered it, even the Japanese waiter was a little surprised. It is raw horse meat. While I don't know if I would have it again, I have to admit that it tasted pretty good. From what I understand, it is illegal in the United States.
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