We've come to Kawagoe
Which is a town a little way out of Tokyo
On the north west side
It's got an area of old, traditional Edo-style buildings
They're called kurazukuri
It's somewhere I wanted to come and look round anyway
But it turns out
On the third Saturday & Sunday of October
They have their annual festival
Kawagoe Matsuri
So we've come along to experience that
I'm hoping it won't be a bad idea
Because I think it's going to be really busy
It'll be a good thing to see anyway
Oh man, it looks really busy!
The main feature of the festival
Are these floats
They're all the same shape
With 2 storeys
And they're decorated in different ways
These people are pulling the float
We're on the main road that heads to the warehouse district
Which is where the main festival's going to be
And where all the old buildings are
And it's packed with people
There's also lots of stalls selling street food
Like takoyaki, dango
Baked potatoes and yakisoba
I couldn't believe how many food stalls there were
And they were really interesting
So I've made a separate video just about the food
Ahh!
It's not moving
Look, Phil just won a hamster!
We saw the guy that works at the arcade
Move them around for a little girl
So Phil asked them to move them as well
Because he wanted this one with the biscuit
So cute!
We've just gone down a side street
Into a small temple or shrine
And it's like fun day at the temple
There's stalls selling food
People playing games
And all the people along the entrance
Are walking along a path
With lots of stones
I'm not sure why they're doing it
Is it painful?
Yeah, it's annoying
It's like walking on Lego
This bit's alright
Not a good idea!
Don't worry Phil,
You'll reach enlightenment by doing this
I won't
The enlightenment might be
Never to do it again!
Ow!
Those are small ones!
It's crazy how many food stalls there are
They're all along the main roads
And then when you turn off on side roads like this
There's even more
It's got dark really suddenly again
Well this is good
Just walking around, eating things!
I feel like we're quite lucky to be here
At this time
To see the annual festival
And see the floats around
And all of this going on
The floats have turntables on them
So they can spin round
To look at other people
It's funny when they underneath the wires
And the guys on the top have to duck under them
The floats are all a similar size and shape
They've all got a dancer on the front in costume
And people playing the drums and flute
The dancing's traditional Japanese style
To me it looks a bit creepy!
This area with all the old buildings
Is called the Warehouse District
You can't really see it very well here
But the Bell Tower is the famous landmark of this area
These old buildings look really amazing
It must be so different here when the festival's not on
And it's a lot quieter
We're in a big crush of people!
Phil's got a yakisoba
Looks good!
I'm really glad we came today
It's been really busy walking rounf the streets
But it's great to experience a Japanese matsuri
I'm sure they're not all like this one
But this is what Kawagoe festival's like
We've seen lots of floats
Parked up around the streets
Then sometimes they've been pulled along
There's been performances
Dancing
Traditional music
It's hard to know what the whole plan of the festival is
And what's going on
And why each float's moving where it is
But it's been really interesting to see
I was amazed at the amount of food stalls there are
It's been fun to just walk around trying different things
There's a real variety of foods actually
Kawagoe itself
Looks beautiful
I think you'd really need to come on a different day
To see it properly
And see all the buildings without crowds of people in front of them
But the atmosphere's been great
And I'm really glad we came!