Potentially NSFW!
Okay, okay, I'll admit I've always wanted to go to the penis festival, aka fertility festival aka honen matsuri :) We ended up in Aichi around 2pm, which turned out to be perfect timing :) We ended up taking toll roads to get there which meant around four hours of driving instead of eight which is super amazing. The non amazing thing about toll roads is their toll nature :p From memory that 4 hour trip cost us around 80 Aus. dollars. That's crazy! We ending up only doing the toll thing a few times to save coin. Another plus to avoiding toll roads is our GPS took us through some amazing small towns (down roads that didn't look like roads and meandering around rice patties) it was amazing and a big part of why we wanted to do this trip via car :)
Anyway back to the penis festival. In my head it was going to be larger than I it actually was, not the giant wooden phallus but the whole festival itself :p The procession of the wooden penis, I read, was to take place around 2pm but the last part near the temple happens more around 3pm. Ben and I, after standing in the hot sun to capture it all, aborted after 10minutes - no stamina and we don't do super well with crowds! We ended up wandering and munching on things instead. I always enjoy a good Japanese festival and although small this one has lots of charm and lots and lots of chocolate covered bananas. I, myself, ended up with a cucumber on a stick :p
Wow!!! I've heard about this festival and for some reason it seems incongruous with Japanese culture? Looks so cool and interesting - the bananas all lined up are adorable, haha. :D
ReplyDeleteI think there are many aspects to the festival, I just took it at a super surface level - aka giggling at the bananas and admiring their cuteness :) I like how Japanese culture has these discrepancies, like they are a really reserve society but they have this opposite side of dirty manga, love hotels and game shows, such as handjob karaoke. It's really fascinating - to me anyway :P
Deletethis is so.... but speaking of, I saw penis shaped lipstick the other day... so why not :)
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely viewing it out of context too. Those wooden plaques, fourth image from bottom, are so people can right their fertility wishes onto! I can definitely see there is a place for a fertility festival :)
DeleteHappy to see you got a little vag to take home. And the rice crackers at the base of the chocolate covered bananas kills me.
ReplyDeleteThat sake cup (you flip it upside down to drink out of!) is probably my fav thing Ben bought on the trip and hopefully one day, I can steal it off of him :) I too loved the rice crackers!
DeleteI had no ideas this kind of festival existed!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to see a nice mix of people too - young and old!
DeleteThis is way too funny! It's incredible (in my obviously silly occidental? view) that this happened next (part of) to a temple and they even had wood plaques with penis drawings to ask for a wish :) it is definitely a unique experience to have!
ReplyDeleteI was trying to work out if it was a funny or very serious festival and I think everyone views it a little differently :) :) Which is a nice way to look at life anyway!
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