A festival in.. Gifu


Today's message is.. if you go to the fire festival..go early get a spot....learn from our mistake.




Gifu-castle

Before going to the festival we decided to go to Gifu castle. We expected very little, but it is well worth a trip. The moden reconstruction of the castle sits on top of a steep mountain on the edge of town. The view from the top is extra-ordinary. Wide and far it is one of the best views we have had in Japan. It is at least in my top 3 (Everything here is rated by top 3)

On the way to the castle from the car I scared yet another poor Japanese child. We we walking over a bridge and we heard then saw a little kid happily running along until he saw us (me). He just stopped dead in his tracks and stared with something like fear and awe in his face. It was pretty funny



view going up in the cablecar (ropeway)


View from the top over Gifu. The cormorant fishing happens close by. We could see the boats sitting down by the river.



Tejikara no Himatsuri

We came especially to see the festival on the edge of town.











Our location was not great, so please excuse the quality of the video. The video though does show the scale of the sparks. You can clearly see the men carrying the huge float as they walk under the cascade. It is pretty impressive.























All the photos were from 5 deep in the crowd. This was the best one of the main temple building suddenly bright from the fireworks themselves.

















We were behind trees. therefore the trunk in shot. The photo is not cropped as it does give an idea of what we saw.
































The climax. Sparks are fired up and cover the centre of the temple grounds.

We had decided to beat the crazy crowd and leave half way through the final bit. So no photos, but we had seen enough, were sore and tired. A good day..just a little noisy and too much effort to fight the crowd and hold our ground.

Would I recomend going - yes definately, but go early and do not stand near the entrence torii.




If you want to see the video that made us want to go to the festival - Click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2FVTzZ4n_8&feature=related


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