Day 11 - Tenjin Matsuri

Today, we've been in Osaka at Tenjin Matsuri soaking up the culture and the atmosphere, as well as sampling a number of weird and wonderful foods. Our food tasting adventures, however, began early this morning, when we decided to try the Pokemon drinks that we bought yesterday. Sarah's "Sports and Water" was actually pretty darn good, and tasted like slightly fruity chilled water. Helen wasn't quite so lucky. She had a can of some unknown substance which looked, smelled and tasted most unpleasant. Needless to say, the whole can was promptly poured down the sink, while a rather smug Sarah looked on, happily drinking her Pokemon drink.

Our second food adventure happened as a result of the decision to get our breakfast at the local supermarket on the way to the station. We opted for sweet baked goods, including what appeared to be a waffle sandwich, which was so good we've been back and bought more for breakfast tomorrow.

We got on the super-rapid train to Osaka, before getting the loop train round to Osaka-Jo, a pretty impressive castle which was destroyed during the war before being reconstructed in the 1970s. We wandered around the grounds for a while, and accidentally stumbled upon "cow art" (as it described itself). It seemed to be a group of model cows that had been painted for no apparent reason in a load of different patterns (including a tiger cow!). Think, the Berlin bears, but weirder, and with cows.

Next we headed off into the main part of Osaka where the festival would be happening. We managed to find a lot of people hanging around who looked like they were part of the upcoming parade, but decided that they didn't look about to get going any time soon, and went to grab some sandwiches and cold drinks which we took into a nearby park and ate. From our picnic spot, we could see a mass of festival performers lining up and getting ready for the parade.

After Helen managed to pull Sarah away from chasing the pigeons around the park, we headed off in the direction of the river, where we knew the parade would be heading later on, and claimed a spot on the side of the road from which to watch the procession. Still quite a long time until the parade started, we managed to get hold of our first taste of festival food from the stalls opposite. We got some dough balls, which were chewy and delicious, and Sarah gave in and bought a bag of Pokemon candy floss. Helen requested that we tried what appeared to be eggy pancakes, but quickly stopped eating them after Sarah noticed that they had tentacles in them. Using our helpful phrasebook, we decoded found that the stall's sign said 'ika', or squid. Helen looked on in what can only be described as slight horror as Sarah polished off the rest of the pancake.

The police started roping off the road in front of us in preparation for the procession coming through, so we got up and staked claim to our places at the very front of the crowd. We had a near-perfect view as hundreds of costumed men paraded past waving banners, carrying lanterns and hauling massive mikoshi (portable shrines) while others played drums and bells. They then set down the shrines and joined up with others on the river bank, performing dances and probably having a bit of a rest before the rest of the festivities

After the parade had passed, we walked down to the side of the river where we were able to see all the members of the procession, now on boats going up and down the river. We took another wander through a little market-stall village next to the river, where we saw lots of different stalls, including a game which seemed to involve trying to scoop as many goldfish out of a trough as you could before your net dissolved. We also saw loads of stalls selling octopus balls, (which we decided to steer clear of), some wiggly fish on sticks, tentacles, unidentified fried sticks, lots and lots of noodles, and some sort of edible plate device with a fried egg on top.

Helen tried some grilled mystery meat on a stick, in order to help her forget her squid related woes. We're not entirely sure what kind of meat it was, but it definitely wasn't fish, and that was all she needed to know. We also tried some chocolate-covered fruit on a stick (sticks seemed to be somewhat of a theme to the festival food). Sarah had a banana and Helen had a piece of pineapple, and both were covered in sprinkles and other random junk, including love hearts type things, squishy biscuits and a rogue cornflake.

As darkness fell, the boats were lit up and the fireworks started. We headed home soon after to make sure that we wouldn't miss the last train home, stopping at the supermarket on the way to stock up on the aforementioned waffle sandwiches.

Tomorrow, we're off to Nara to explore and feed some deer!