Journey to Kishiwada, パート２

Reading: ---

Listening: "俄然 Yeah!", Mihimaru GT

Sunday, September 16
In the morning, we had pastries and coffees at Kishiwada SATY, then caught a taxi to the station for 岸和田だんじり祭り (Kishiwada Danjiri Festival), one of the most notoriously exciting festivals in Japan.

Each district sends a danjiri, or wheeled cart, through the streets. The carts feature beautifully carved details.

Men dance atop the danjiri, waving their arms, as the cart veers fast around the corners.

At the Kishiwada International Association offices, we befriended the volunteer staff, who provided us with English information and took pictures of us clad in festival coats carrying large red fans.

Visitors lined the streets with beers and snacks in hand, watching the passing danjiri, which ambled slowly along the straight lengths of road and sped up in passing the dangerous corners. The festival is notorious for at least one death--due to toppled danjiri--every year. We hurried through the chaos and first visited 岸和田城 (Kishiwada Castle).

The view of the rock garden from the castle balcony.

Festival participants lined up on the streets outside the castle.

We shared a strawberry kakigoori (shave ice).

I ate a tamasen, a name short for tamago (egg) senbei (rice cracker).
The stall master spread thick, savory sauce on a long senbei slab, onto which he sprinkled a layer of crunchies with the consistency of Rice Krispies. As a winner of the stall's mini game, I received three fried eggs for the price of one. The master coated the eggs with a generous drizzling of mayonnaise. Most people fold the large tamasen in half, creating an easy-to-eat sandwich, but I ate mine flat like a pizza. Yes, it looks gross, but tamasen is SO good.

(If you remember from a previous post, I first ate tamasen at Meiji Mura in Aichi-ken!)

Our group eventually split ways, with Chris, Lauren, and I returning to SATY. We picked up Super Windy and after checking into a hotel back in Sakai, we ate dinner at the nearby Lani Cafe/Hale Diner, another Hawaiian cafe find.

めっちゃかわいい～！

Complementary assortment of appetizers.
My favorite was the one on the left, a chilled eggplant curry salad.

Ahi poke. I miss the large tubs at home. This petite one still tasted good. The flavors were fresh and clean. The salad was topped with sliced daikon and arranged atop a fried shrimp chip.

"Saimin." No Hawaii saimin is this frou frou, but the dish was delicious all the same. It was filled with fresh veggies and was a bit spicy with a heavy dose of pepper.

The three of us also shared a tiny loco moco and the garlic shrimp fried rice. No pictures though. We just dug in.

Chocolate gateau.

My primary criticism of "Japanese Hawaiian food" is of the portion sizes. Granted, ingredients here are expensive, but I'm accustomed to enormous plate lunches that my belly bursts to finish, not tiny loco moco bowls that I can inhale in two seconds. Furthermore, local grindz have a simple perfection that makes the food here seem too deliberate. Still, I'll continue searching and sampling Hawaiian cafes for tastes from home.

We returned to Kishiwada by train, where the festival had transitioned into night mode. Lanterns were lit and the crowds had multiplied three-fold. The carts now meandered slowly down the streets, with the newbies filling the roles held by the professionals. Young boys beat drums and tooted on flutes while the experienced, hardened men lagged behind, swigging gulps of beer and breathing in drags from their cigarettes. Everything had fallen into a state of mess, with rubbish lining the streets and boys pausing to urinate or vomit on the side, but all festival-goers were happy and pleasant.

A Wada on the kishi.

These young boys are perched atop the danjiri.

We joined in the festivities with beer, okonomiyaki, and ikayaki (grilled squid). We said good night to Lauren before returning to our hotel. Ahh, festivals!