Devil Hunting Festival

Got up late today after forgetting to set my alarm, so it was soon 5.30 and time to leave for the festival. We caught the train to Tofurou-mae where we met Kanashima-san. It was a little walk to the festival site, where big tents had been put up containing stalls and places for people to sit. We got given a bento each and went and sat so that we could see the stage where various oriental dances were being performed. Yuu from Linden Hall just happened to be right next to us and came over and made sure that we each noticed him! He is quite an attention seeker and his English is quite good; if only he were like that in class. Anyway, his parents gave us some plastic sheeting to sit, which was very nice of them, but we didn't stay long as we had to get ready!

We put on little red tops; I don't know to describe them: maybe like martial arts tops, or the sorts Taiko-drum players wear. This was accessorised with a white bandana, a piece of rope round our heads: like horns, and a piece of rope around our torsos to hold the top in place. To top this off we then had to paint our faces with black chalk. We were each given a big bamboo pole with a white sign on the end (運). We spent some time talking to the other students there. They were about 18 years old wearing their school uniforms. Some of them kept telling us that their friend was a drag queen!

When it was our turn, they lit a big pole that some of the other students were carrying. They looked quite nervous as they were all facing away from the fire, but that didn't stop them hurling it around quite a bit. We followed behind, running in a circle around some children playing drums in the center, chanting "onijya, onijya, onijya". It means "Go away, devil!", or something like that. Then after a few rotations they threw a could of flares down no each side of the stage and we had to stand and fan them. I think it's meant to symbolise us burning the devil's house down. Then some more students burst through some walls on the stage, with the lead person wearing a devil's mask, and ran off. I think we were victorious! A couple more laps around the circuit and we were finished.

It was really cool being part of it and just being silly like that. We chatted to some of the teachers afterwards who invited us to their school festival! Yuu came and found us again and we stood around for a bit watching the fireworks: Yuu on Rushen's shoulders.