Hino Festival
With a stroke of luck, I was feeling better enough to go with my friends to visit our friend Shawn in Hino where there was a festival to be held that weekend.
The weather was really nice, especially for this time of year. You'd think summer would be winding down but this was comfortably t-shirt weather, which would not have cut it in England nearing November.
We were joined on our endeavour to the festival by Bean (it was pronounced bean, as in baked), a Vietnamese girl. When I first arrived, I thought Bean was a long standing friend of Nam and Amy's but as it turned out, she was only known to Amy and Nam as the girl who was buying Nam's bike who they had met just that day. She got along famously with everyone in our group as if she'd been our friend for years.
When we arrived at the festival, the first thing I saw was Japanese Captain America. He agreed to take a photo with our group and Bean did the honours of being our photographer. Captain America was slightly bemused looking in almost all of them since Bean was a very mobile photographer who moved quite a lot and you never knew whether a picture had been taken or not but we got a lovely photo of the group.
We meandered around the festival stalls and ate a lot of street food and candy floss. As we were walking around the stalls, I heard a faint drumming. We walked towards the sounds, thinking we were about to see some Japanese music but to actually find men making Mochi. The drumming was for keeping the pace of the mallets.
Mochi is made by repeatedly hitting rice with wooden mallets. There are other ingredients and steps but that's the basics! We watched for a while and it was quite mesmerising but before long, mallets were being pressed into our hands and we were involved in the making process.
Volunteering to make mochi
After we'd smashed the rice with all our might and taken out any rage on the 'soon-to-be-mochi' paste, the men resumed their posts but this time, one used the mallet and another man folded the mochi with his bare hands in between strikes. It was very stressful to watch, it always seemed just as if he'd get his hands hit - here's a video for those who aren't faint of heart!
Mochi man hands
Before long, it was ready - which was convenient since my nerves were fraught. We bought some of the mochi we'd helped to make. They had two flavours, black sesame seeds or something I don't know the name of but that I'm assured tasted like peanut butter. Neither of these appealed to me so I let everyone tell me how good it tasted and took their word for it!
After the excitement of making Mochi, more excitement followed! Giant mascots 'Ken and Ken' were wandering around the festival and Amy and I had to take pictures with them - guest spot to Bean too! They had actual names but Amy and I rejected them since obviously they were called Ken - why else would they have it on their costumes?
A small parade began not long after that with lots of people dressed as Samurai or in traditional dress. It was fun to watch but it was quite short. We'd soon found we'd seen everything at the stalls and having watched the short procession, we headed to leave but the festival had other plans for us.
I was startled by some very loud shots that rang out as we were about to leave. We turned to see that there was a gun display by men dressed in traditional samurai garb with traditional guns. It was actually quite impressive to watch them since they were quite coordinated and all worked to the instructions shouted to them. The guns were really loud and even after we'd left, they still sounded out loudly over the town. I managed to catch a snippet of it before we left.
Tickets to the gun show anyone?
Since it was a beautiful day, and we'd driven out to see Shawn we all agreed it was far too early to call it a day. Bean parted company with us and we all bundled into Shawn's car to visit a local Temple. It was small but beautiful and we explored the grounds with music from Shawn's phone which I definitely didn't think was coming from the grounds themselves. 🙉
It was still too early to go back but also too early to eat so we all jumped back in Shawn's vehicle to venture over to Hino Dam. When we arrived, Nam and Amy were shocked to see it was so low that a lot of the dam was empty! So, we wandered down to walk on the dam floor.
We spent some time trying to skip stones across the small amount of water that was actually there.
Nam skips stones, Amy trying but slipping instead
Nam the stone skipping master
In our strolls, we came across some flowers, so I present to you - the flower princess series!
To round off the weekend, we ate a delicious meal at a well decorated Indian Restaurant that amongst it's merits, had ridiculous sized Naan with an all you can eat Naan deal! I took full advantage of it which meant I felt so full on the drive back but I did get a really good nights sleep!!
The weather was really nice, especially for this time of year. You'd think summer would be winding down but this was comfortably t-shirt weather, which would not have cut it in England nearing November.
We were joined on our endeavour to the festival by Bean (it was pronounced bean, as in baked), a Vietnamese girl. When I first arrived, I thought Bean was a long standing friend of Nam and Amy's but as it turned out, she was only known to Amy and Nam as the girl who was buying Nam's bike who they had met just that day. She got along famously with everyone in our group as if she'd been our friend for years.
When we arrived at the festival, the first thing I saw was Japanese Captain America. He agreed to take a photo with our group and Bean did the honours of being our photographer. Captain America was slightly bemused looking in almost all of them since Bean was a very mobile photographer who moved quite a lot and you never knew whether a picture had been taken or not but we got a lovely photo of the group.
{Not every day you see Japanese Cap}
{Waiting for candy floss}
We meandered around the festival stalls and ate a lot of street food and candy floss. As we were walking around the stalls, I heard a faint drumming. We walked towards the sounds, thinking we were about to see some Japanese music but to actually find men making Mochi. The drumming was for keeping the pace of the mallets.
Mochi is made by repeatedly hitting rice with wooden mallets. There are other ingredients and steps but that's the basics! We watched for a while and it was quite mesmerising but before long, mallets were being pressed into our hands and we were involved in the making process.
Volunteering to make mochi
After we'd smashed the rice with all our might and taken out any rage on the 'soon-to-be-mochi' paste, the men resumed their posts but this time, one used the mallet and another man folded the mochi with his bare hands in between strikes. It was very stressful to watch, it always seemed just as if he'd get his hands hit - here's a video for those who aren't faint of heart!
Mochi man hands
Before long, it was ready - which was convenient since my nerves were fraught. We bought some of the mochi we'd helped to make. They had two flavours, black sesame seeds or something I don't know the name of but that I'm assured tasted like peanut butter. Neither of these appealed to me so I let everyone tell me how good it tasted and took their word for it!
After the excitement of making Mochi, more excitement followed! Giant mascots 'Ken and Ken' were wandering around the festival and Amy and I had to take pictures with them - guest spot to Bean too! They had actual names but Amy and I rejected them since obviously they were called Ken - why else would they have it on their costumes?
A small parade began not long after that with lots of people dressed as Samurai or in traditional dress. It was fun to watch but it was quite short. We'd soon found we'd seen everything at the stalls and having watched the short procession, we headed to leave but the festival had other plans for us.
I was startled by some very loud shots that rang out as we were about to leave. We turned to see that there was a gun display by men dressed in traditional samurai garb with traditional guns. It was actually quite impressive to watch them since they were quite coordinated and all worked to the instructions shouted to them. The guns were really loud and even after we'd left, they still sounded out loudly over the town. I managed to catch a snippet of it before we left.
Tickets to the gun show anyone?
Since it was a beautiful day, and we'd driven out to see Shawn we all agreed it was far too early to call it a day. Bean parted company with us and we all bundled into Shawn's car to visit a local Temple. It was small but beautiful and we explored the grounds with music from Shawn's phone which I definitely didn't think was coming from the grounds themselves. 🙉
{Pumba...what you doing in Japan?}
It was still too early to go back but also too early to eat so we all jumped back in Shawn's vehicle to venture over to Hino Dam. When we arrived, Nam and Amy were shocked to see it was so low that a lot of the dam was empty! So, we wandered down to walk on the dam floor.
We spent some time trying to skip stones across the small amount of water that was actually there.
Nam skips stones, Amy trying but slipping instead
Nam the stone skipping master
In our strolls, we came across some flowers, so I present to you - the flower princess series!
{Nam was an unwilling participant in the flower princess series}
To round off the weekend, we ate a delicious meal at a well decorated Indian Restaurant that amongst it's merits, had ridiculous sized Naan with an all you can eat Naan deal! I took full advantage of it which meant I felt so full on the drive back but I did get a really good nights sleep!!
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