Postcard from - Asama Onsen, Matsumoto, Japan

This was a lot of fun!

In all the years (decades) I've lived up here in Central (and rural) Japan, I've always managed to miss this really cool, really local, really smoky festival. Stupid me!

The Taimatsu Festival is a really traditional festival through the narrow streets of Asama Onsen, nestled above Matsumoto city. Local groups/clubs/businesses/neighbourhoods drag/haul/carry or wheel their huge straw bundles up the hill to Jinguji Shrine - usually utterly deserted & unvisited...I don't think I've ever been up this particular little hill myself.

Faces blackened with soot, straw bales kindled & fanned into life, and the air full of encouraging taiko drum beats - and welcomed to the destination bonfire beside the shrine by the firefighters' bugles!

The usual matsuri yatai selling takoyaki, grilled squid, okonomiyaki etc + less traditional 'doner' kebabs (sic), and the chance to bump into ex-students in the dark...sights & sounds of the lesser travelled parts of Japan well-worth discovering & exploring, photographing & enjoying. 

My photographer advice = come early, scope out a decent perch or two - a small pair of steps will give you excellent above head-height vantages. And walk about, talk to folks, get fun-groupies - this yomp up the hill stops every couple of minutes - migrate down the hill & 'do' a different group at each rest stop. Forget the fireworks though - a distraction. Once a year this shrine is the focus - grab a free sake and enjoy the buzz. Let the town come to you on a lovely autumn night!