So another Saturday arrived, another Saturday has nearly gone (the sun is setting as we write) and we went back to the castle... again! This time however there was no steep stairs, no women in kimonos and a temporary grandstand that looked like it had been stolen from Adelaide Oval. There were however, a lot of white bum cheeks, though not nearly as large as the sumos, however wearing the same attire.So another day, another festival. I'd love to be able to tell you what this festival would was about. I could dribble about something and you may be likely to believe me, but I couldn't live with my conscience. What makes me feel better is that no one else really knew/knows what was going on either. So we'll leave it at that!
There was the biggest crowd I've seen at one of these shin digs, although I have missed a few. The street was cordoned off and there were more traffic dudes with lightsabers than usual. As we arrived there were lots of these portable shrines being carried on the shoulders of men. Apparently the shrine is a representative of local areas. They stopped in various spots (coincidentally this usually coincided with the bigger crowds) and heaved these shrines into the air three times. Having carried these things from somewhere near the station this was quite an effort. They eventually made it to the castle.Trouble with not understanding the language and not being able to read the paper was that I didn't know when it was going to end. There was no sign of nipper and nimble or the credit union princesses to signal Santa was on his way. No, just the dispersion of the crowd to another point. At this time, the festival moved into stage 2, which we didn't stay for.
But, we did do other stuff. To tell you about stage 2 of the day for us, we now switch authors to Jodi for her thoughts...
We followed the crowd over the bridge and through the entrance to the castle. The many beautiful portable shrines had been propped up on display in a restricted area. Many people were lined up around the fences taking photos (yes, of course I was one of them) and just looking on in awe. Each portable shrine weighs about 1 tonne and has 50 men carrying and throwing it into the air. Incredible. Not a lot seemed to be happening here so we followed our noses (motivated by hungry tummies) back across the road to where many food stalls were set up on an oval.
There were food tents galore selling okonomiyaki, tako yaki, fried chicken, yaki soba, oysters, Japanese sweets, toffee strawberries, toffee grapes, ice cream and beer! After a satisfying lunch of shared fried chicken and yaki soba we wandered around the grounds. 
There were many kids pulling some blow-up dogs on wheels. They were quite cute and the kids loved them. An interesting concept. In the middle of the grounds were two drums set up for public amusement and use. 
Tina climbed onto the frame of one drum and got a lesson from an experienced Japanese drum player. After this we headed to the roof of the Egret Centre for a birds eye view of the festivities. The view of the castle was quite spectacular as you can start to grasp actually how prominent a land mark it is.