Festival in Kamogawa!

Today was the day! The Shikinen Torii Gihikisai festival was beginning and will last 3 days as they parade around the neighbouring Amatsu area with a tree from which the Torii (temple shrine gate) was made from. They will also of course have tons of delicious food stalls and entertainment. The best part is, ITS FREE! Or at least I think it was. I happened to enter from some sort of back entrance I think, but no one bothered to stop me... so it must've been okay! I finally got to wear the yukata I purchased last week in preparation for the festival. My first time wearing a yukata was in Odaiba in 2011 for the onset attraction they had there (which I must definitely visit this year), but this is the first time I have owned a yukata and put it on all by myself (I had to tie the obi myself which was difficult). Before the festival started, I took a quick (quick-ish) trip to Chiba city which is about 2 hours away to pick up my friend Yu-chan. Yu-chan was coming from Tokyo to see the festival as well~ 

 The signs of an incoming typhoon as the waves start kicking up fiercely...

not a good day for a surf, but amazing to watch!

 Quick mocha stop at Beck's inside Chiba city train station. This station is quite large as it connects not only Chiba to Tokyo, but also to places like Narita international airport. 

 All about that yukata life! It felt really cool to wear this although not many people were wearing yukata at the festival haha.

 I'm not sure where they giant tree they were supposed to be carrying around was, but when we arrived at the festival, there were taiko drummers inside this shrine and another large shrine was on its way in after it was paraded around the town. 

 This is the second shrine, the one they carried around town. I didn't see a large piece of tree anywhere, but there were young saplings, so maybe they are the new trees to be used? Not sure, but it looked heavy and peoples were carrying it around the city haha (good thing everyone in Kamogawa is super buff LOL)

The night was finished off (for me anyway) by this incredible singer. He had a TON of different wigs and outfits and would sing different styles of music (I am sure they were famous people, but I only recognised two of the songs)