Summer festival 2
Summer festival in Japan Part 2
Hi. I’m Yukako who lives in the northern part of Europe, and teaches and tells people about Japanese traditional culture such as tea ceremony, kimono, etc. offline and online.
Today I would like to tell you must-know items about summer festivals in Japan!
Happi and Yukata
Happi is a thin cotton jacket for a festival clothes. It usually shows up on a half-naked guy. These guys wear pants and the Happi jacket and pump up the festival! Yukata is a traditional Japanese summer clothes. It used to be worn as a bath clothes, but people wear it as a summer outdoor clothes nowadays. There is a shop for yukata rental service, so you can try it on someday!
Yatai
Yatai is outside stalls. They have foods such as yakisoba noodles, takoyaki egg balls, okonomiyaki cabbage pancakes, ringo apple candies, kakigoori snow balls, sausages, cucumber sticks, pineapple sticks, beer, etc. I usually ate a cracker called tako-sen. It’s a salty cracker and a few cabbage, an egg and oyster sauce on it. It was really tasty. They also have games such as a gun-shooting game, a catching golden fish, a wanage ringtoss, etc. We don’t have amusement attractions you usually see in the festival in western counties. Instead, all streets are occupied with these yatai where the festival happens. The price is usually high compared with quality. You know it’s a festival food, however, you enjoy the authentic festival mood eating or drinking these food.
I hope the information helps you to enjoy Japanese summer festival more!