Late summer is the time of summer festivals in Japan. When I arrived in Japan in 2019, my first big event in Takasaki was the Takasaki Matsuri, which is probably one of the biggest events in the whole prefecture.
At the time, I was waiting for my husband to come join me in Japan, so I was by my lonesome and nervous to get to know people and make any kind of friends. I walked about 45 minutes from my apartment in the hot and humid weather to the riverside to meet up with the local english teaching social community, GAJET. On my way there, I happened to see a crowd gathered around giant floating towers known as dashi.
Each dashi had people playing taiko drums or playing flutes. I don’t believe I even saw the festival booths set up at this time. I was so focused on meeting up with people that I just made a beeline towards the event rather than soaking up the details of what I didn’t know would be the last summer festival for 3 years.
A few days after the Takasaki matsuri, I went up to the Mandoue (万灯会) candlelight festival on Kannon-yama, which is a small mountain west of Takasaki city proper. I have since come to learn that this is a Buddhist affair, in which lanterns are offered up to ask for forgiveness and for wishes to be granted.