Sun, Rain, Dashi and Big Spiders in the loo...

The just about sums up our weekend camping trip! Today is catch up day so a post of few words. Sunday we headed into Chichibu town and discovered there was a festival on, we found the dashi at the shrine being prepared. Here they are slowly removing the 'raincoat'

It took quite some time, there were guys on each level and two right at the top. The town has another dashi like this one but we didn't get to see that one.

Ebi-kun was under threat by over enthusiastic old people with fancy cameras so daddy-ebi had to lift him up.

I wonder how they decide who is going up the top? I imagine it is quite an honour, I can also imagine that one or two in the past have fallen off! I don't know anything about the history of this festival since we just stumbled upon it.

We actually left the shrine because it was taking them so long to get the dashi moving and it was lunch time. We found a little soba shop on the main street and just nipped out when the dash was actually going past. The are definitely pre-sake at this stage!

I wonder what they do if they need the toilet? hmmm.

More camp tales tomorrow, I have to tackle my inbox now and it is scary...