Summer festivals

Summer has come (or technically I think it's still spring but for me this warm weather is summer!) and many festivals are arranged around in Tokyo. I would think there is at least one festival every weekend somewhere in Tokyo during this warmer part of the year. Today we went to Kanda (close to Akihabara) for the Kanda Matsuri where they carry portable shrines, Mikoshi, to the Kanda temple. It was a hot day today, 28 degree and clear blue sky, so it was perfect conditions to see other people carrying heavy things!

Finally we came around to buy bicycles this weekend. Yesterday we ordered a couple of 20" foldable Dahon bikes. Amazing that it took us 16 months to manage to arrange that after moving to Japan.

It's now been two weeks now since the 72km race in Fuji goko. My legs are finally back to a state when I can start running again. Still I can't do any longer distances but the training has started for the challenge of the year, 100km race in Saroma up in Hokkaido at the end of June.

Photos from today.











Big streets around Akihabara were closed for traffic and filled with groups of people carrying the portable shrines, Mikoshi.











Many groups looked exhausted in the warm weather. This group was still full of energy though.











Kids was riding on some of the shrines.











I got to try to carry the shrine that one of our friends, Chie-san, group was responsible for. After 5 minutes I had had enough in the heat. They kept on going for hours...











The goal was to carry the Mikoshi to the temple where there was a ceremony to finish off the festival.