Kyushu Festival

This past weekend I went with some friends from the dorm to a festival celebrating the culture from Kyushu, one of the areas of Japan. I was planning on posting this earlier, but I have had no motivation to do anything. It's bad when even reading a book seems like too much effort! So I finally got some energy to get things done, and this blog was definitely high on the list! We set out around 11 since we wanted to have plenty of time to see everything. One of our friends was going to meet us later, so we decided to walk around Harajuku a little bit while we waited, since the festival was right in the area. We went into some interesting looking shops, but mostly we just looked at all the people and the weird things that some of the clothing said. I was really excited though, when we came across this bubble tea stand. I just had to get some! 

I asked for the most popular kind, and it was Japanese green tea with milk and sweet beans. It was so delicious!

We also saw this guy just hanging out on the street corner. He must have been so hot!

Our next stop was Meiji shrine since we were in the area. It was fun going back, but I didn't take many pictures since I did the last time I was there (see that post here). I think there was a wedding going on, because we saw all these people in traditional outfits, which were so cool! So I took a creepy picture.

After Meiji, we went to Yoyogi Park. We thought that the festival we were heading towards was going to be in the park, but it wasn't so we ended up just walking around for a while. It was gorgeous though, so I didn't really care!

Yoyogi Park

Cool arbor leading into the park

There were these beautiful roses by the sidewalk!

Pond in the park

There were also these cool fountains in the ponds!

Victor and Mina

This guy made a sculpture of someones face by throwing clay at a wooden stand and then molding it to look like a face. It was so cool!

We finally figured out that the festival was actually by the National Gymnasium, which was just over a little staircase, so we headed over. This was the first actual festival that I have been to, so it was a lot of fun! It wasn't a traditional or religious festival, it was just celebrating Kyushu, so it was a little different. Mostly there was just a lot of food stands where you could buy food that originated from Kyushu. It was definitely my type of festival!

Kyushu Festival

We ate ちゃんぽんラーメン (chanpon ramen) and it was so good! It had a bunch of veggies and octopus and shrimp in it.

We saw these people playing some sort of traditional drums which was super exciting

Then these samurai guys started dancing and fighting on the stage

This guy was outside one of the stands, and when he saw us he kept asking to take a picture! 

They had all these different mascots walking around so we kept getting pictures with them ^_^

Samurai-power ranger?

Rachel, Mina and I with a Samurai!

After we left the festival we decided to stop and get some crepes on the way home in Harajuku. I got one that was full of chocolate, and it was so good!

Overall it was a really fun day and I can't wait to go to another festival!

P.S. The tea of the day is green tea ^^