Day 27 : My Final Full Day & A Festival

I had tried thinking last night and this morning about where I should go for my last full day in Japan. There were some places that I knew I wouldn't need to re-visit since I had been a bunch of times on my trip - Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Shinjuku, the Skytree. There were some places that would be too far to go in a day and still leave me feeling like I would be able to pack later, so I decided not to go back to Showa Kinen Park or Mt. Takao, although the latter was a pretty appealing option. Finally, there were some neighborhoods that I didn't personally like enough to visit again, places like Nakano or Odaiba.

I felt like it might be better to visit places I had already been so I wouldn't get trapped finding cool new things all day and returning extra late. Tokyo had decided that rain would be the perfect weather for my final day, but I knew I didn't have the luxury of staying inside all day. With all of that in mind, I first decided to head back to Yanaka, the neighborhood that I had visited on my very first day in Tokyo for this trip.

Since I had already been here previously and experienced being lost before, there was no need for me to be lost this time. As such I was able to quickly locate the tunnel leading back to Suwa-jinja Shrine.

With the context that I've picked up in the past month, I thought it was interesting to revisit this shrine. A couple weeks ago, I had learned at Zōjō-ji about the statues with red caps on being guardian deities for children so it was cool to see the statues again after wondering a full month ago why they were wearing red caps and bibs.

The edge of the shrine had a few seats and appears to be a pretty good train watching location as well. Since it was rainy outside, it wasn't particularly busy so it was relaxing to watch the trains come and go for a few minutes as I listened to the sound of the light rain on my umbrella.

I didn't have infinite time to watch the trains so I only did that for a couple minutes and then made sure to take a look at the rest of the temple, including a couple of the smaller shrines tucked away that I had missed previously.

After leaving the temple, I made my way to Yanaka Ginza shopping street. The walk over was peaceful and I decided I was exceedingly lucky that it hadn't been a torrential downpour today. Arriving at Yanaka Ginza, I was happy to see that the shops were still open and that the street was still pretty lively.

I wasn't hungry quite yet so I didn't grab anything to eat although there were lots of shops open serving delicious-looking food. I did stop to ogle at a shop called "Neko Action" ("neko" = cat). This shop was filled with cat-themed goods and the signage proclaimed (or maybe threatened), "NO CAT, NO LIFE.".

Since it was still early and I felt like I was satisfied with having visited Yanaka again, I decided I would attend the actual festival that I had seen being set up yesterday at Kanda Shrine. Rather than walk all the way from Yanaka to Akihabara like I had the very first day of my expedition in Japan, I decided it would be more sensible to just ride the train there.

Thus, I ended up in Akihabara one final time. Since I had already mentally said my goodbyes yesterday, I opted to not loiter or spend any amount of time in Electric Town. Without even looking up directions, it was relatively easy to tell which way I needed to go to get to the Kanda Matsuri since I could hear the faint sound of drumming from a few streets over. As I got closer to the source, I saw that the road was blockaded to car traffic in preparation for the procession of mikoshi later. On the other side of the street, I found the source of the music as well as a small crowd of gathered onlookers.

From this display, I was able to walk directly down the street to the shrine. About halfway I stumbled upon another crowd eagerly surrounding one of the highly-visible, golden mikoshi (the singular and plural form are the same). I thought it would be nice to get a closer look but it didn't appear that anyone would be moving any time soon so I decided to finish making my way to the shrine.

The main entrance to the shrine was busier than it had been yesterday but I wouldn't call it 'packed' at that point of time. Since the mikoshi palanquins make their way to the shrine throughout the day, the festival got busier as the day went on. But to start it was only marginally busy, which I appreciated since it meant I was able to get a bite of the fried chicken I noticed at a stall near the entrance. It was only ¥500 for a pretty sizable potion, so I felt that I had to!

While good, I think it was a bit of a mistake to eat the fried chicken without first looking at the other stalls. Almost immediately after I finished my chicken and was feeling pretty full already, I saw an amazing-looking Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki stand!

At only ¥500, I can safely say this was in the top 5 tastiest things I ate in my entire month in Japan. Okonomiyaki itself basically means "cooked how you like" and this certainly was. The cabbage pancake was layered with pork, yakisoba noodles, a generous amount of okonomiyaki sauce, lots of bonito flakes, and finally topped with an egg! How can this be under 4 bucks!?? So good!

After absolutely devouring my okonomiyaki like some incarnation of a hunger demon, I was beyond stuffed. Unfortunately, I hadn't even checked out all of the food stalls. As such, I decided I would bathe in the festive atmosphere for at least a couple hours in preparation to eat more later. This was the perfect time to have the thought because it was around this time that I heard the distinctive sound of a taiko drum performance. Below I've included a poorly shot video that I took of the performance. I liked the shouting at the beginning and intensity towards the end of the performance!

After watching one composition, I headed back towards the main plaza, where I could still faintly hear the performance. The main plaza was more crowded than previously and I noticed that rather than a line of people queuing to pray at the offering box, instead a sort of avenue was forming. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but this signaled that mikoshi would begin arriving soon. As onlookers began to crowd the plaza, I noticed large cameras being operated around the venue, but I was unsure if it was for a live TV broadcast or a recording for a movie or even a livestream.

Surprisingly, I also stumbled upon a Hololive mascot character! Witness Mikodanye, the chibi IRL incarnation of Sakura Miko!

Even though these mascot characters aren't controlled by same people as the VTubers themselves, they are really popular! People were eagerly lining up to take photos both of and with her. However, she darted around joyfully posing for photos wherever she wanted, even if there wasn't a camera in the direction she was facing. Her playful antics were quite funny as she had handlers ensuring she didn't get too carried away. After a few minutes, she was herded out of the plaza and she merrily scampered back to where she came from.

As she bid final farewell, she gave us a hop that I hadn't expected. The person inside the mascot must be pretty talented because I wouldn't have expected them to be able to jump - and land - so elegantly in such a bulky costume!

Shortly after, I witnessed one of the mikoshi being paraded in. I only caught the tail end of it so I wasn't able to watch the procession make its way from the main entrance, but I was able to catch the avenue of people collapse into a crowd as the followed the mikoshi to the front of the shrine as the mikoshi was blessed by a prayer from the head priest (I think).

Although I missed the procession of this mikoshi, I did end up being very close a couple times after that, slightly on accident. As the next mikoshi had been coming up from the main entrance of the temple, I had been trying to go get some dango. Since I saw that the police were trying to make room for it to pass, I ended up getting stuck in quite a crowd. Actually, this was the only time in my entire stay in Japan that I would say that people were trying to push me out of the way. It wasn't very aggressive or anything but since there was a combination of people wanting to the see the procession up close and the people that were actually just trying to leave, I ended up getting pushed from behind almost right into the procession itself.

The guys in green are the mikoshi bearers. It must weigh a lot so they must be working up quite an appetite! Luckily I know the perfect place...

They stopped short of entering the main plaza and did a little chant and bounced the mikoshi around (which is allegedly fun for the enshrined deity but YMMV!) before continuing in to receive their own prayer. I watched as the crowd followed the mikoshi in, much in the same manner as before.

Instead of following this one inside, I decided it was time for me to get more food. I wasn't really hungry yet, merely not bursting. "I'm not at a festival every day, so I need to make it count!" I opted to get some dango and a bottle of ramune. Although I've had this particular carbonated beverage numerous times, apparently I have been drinking it incorrectly every time. For a little context, ramune bottles are served in a special glass bottle that has a glass marble sealing the drink in. When ready to drink, you dislodge the marble which gets trapped in the neck of the bottle, allowing the drink to flow through the opening. If you try to tilt the bottle too far though, you will find that the marble falls back into the opening, obstructing your enjoyment of the cold beverage.

That is, if you are a total beginner or child like me apparently!

As I was drinking the ramune, carefully tilting it just enough to make sure the marble didn't obstruct my enjoyment of the cold beverage but greatly limited the rate of such enjoyment, a Japanese guy walked past me and then did a double take to seemingly help me out. Without words, this guy explained to me that the neck was shaped in a special way such that if you held the bottle in a specific orientation, the marble wouldn't fall back into the opening, allowing for an almost unrestricted rate of beverage flow! After beckoning for me to do so to make sure I had understood, I complied and gave a very grateful "thank you" after being amazed at the tip. My new mentor then left as quickly as he had arrived. I can only imagine how great of a communicator this dude must be if he didn't limit himself to gestures only, wow (not sarcasm)!

As I was finishing eating my dango beside a truck in the side street, I was surprised to see that another mikoshi suddenly appeared and brought a crowd along with it!

Although I didn't get a picture of the ramune, dango, or man that helped me, I did technically get a picture of the dango stand directly behind the mikoshi in this photo (white sign with red and black lettering) LOL

Although it wasn't dark yet, I decided it was about time to go home. I had a feeling that packing was going to be quite an ordeal so wanted to make sure to give myself plenty of time. We'll find out how true that is tomorrow.

I headed back to Akihabara proper in order to go to the station but decided to make one stop to get a specific item - the new Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. Not only would I get a cool copy of the game with Japanese box art, but I would also save money thanks to the favorable conversion rate! Afterwards, I realized I still had quite a few ¥100 coins left so spent the remainder of them at a game center before heading home. Luckily, I wasn't able to win anything! One interesting thing I noted today was that the maids that I have frequently bemoaned were seemingly reluctant to try to attract customers near the mikoshi and other festival-related displays in Akihabara. Maybe it's bad form to do advertising next to a religious item, I could see that.

Being able to go to the festival today was really awesome, and I definitely am glad I decided to go! It was so lively and had such good food that it felt like a good send-off! I definitely recommend you go to a festival if you visit Japan if possible. Since Kanda Matsuri is held in alternating years with Sannō Matsuri, you would have to check that one out at Hie Shrine in even-numbered years! Maybe I will go to Sannō Matsuri next year!