27 February 2005
Last Updated: 03/03/05
We went to the Fire Festival last year, and were really glad to be able to go
again this year! Taiko, shamisen, dancing, festival food, and...of
course...fire!
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People warm
themselves around the oil-drum fires while enjoying the music and dancing
taking place on various platforms around the town centre |
| On one of the platforms, four men pound rice to make mochi. The mochi was then distributed to the spectators...mmmmm! |
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One of the platforms
It was damn cold...the fires were very welcome ;) |
| Kids playing taiko drums |
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Tom, with his mochi-on-a-very-big stick
The highlight (if you excuse the pun) of the festival is the procession down to ten or so huge pyres which are then lit simultaneously. New Year decorations are burned on the bonfires.
When the flames
have died down a bit people toast mochi in the embers. |
| Loading up with New Year decorations... |
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| Lighting the pyre |
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Wooooosh!
Having been doused with kerosene, the flames take straight away |
| Let's BURN! |
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Spectators, waiting to toast their mochi... |
| ...around the fires, mochi is being toasted |
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...more mochi
toasting |
| Close up |
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| And look who we bumped into... Rhen (left) trying to reduce the effects of the smoke, and Ben (right) post-mochi!  
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Final shot - you can just make out a ring of people standing around the fires. |
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