The above photo shows the current year’s poster for the Inarij Jinja Festival, held every autumn in downtown Fukushima City. It has the dates written in Japanese.

Our neighborhood dashi was pulled around, then we stopped at an area with two other dashis.  This was on Saturday night, not Sunday night. (Sunday evening is the biggest, most impressive, when all the dashis line up and perform.)

Same picture, but slightly different viewpoint.

My son in the middle. Drum players.  (And dashi pushers)  All the kids in the neighborhod learn to play the drums for the festival…..although we have VERY few kids in the neighborhood!

This is nearby. It’s a festival, so average people (not pulling dashi, etc.) are relaxing.

This is really hard to see in the dark, but it’s a fake samurai, holding a sword of yakitori meat.  Very interesting!

And of course sake for sale.

The sign says Fukushima sake.  There are vinyards, and thus wineries in Tohoku.

Two dashi.  Not my neighborhood dashi. The three dashi have lined up for a drum performance

Festival-goers taking photos…just like me!

The three dashi lined up, performing.

My son is playing the drums on this night, and I feel happy he gets this opportunity. It’s very much a privilege (which we receive because we live in the festival participating section of town, the downtown area.)  Even most Japaense people don’t get this privilege.  So I feel lucky!