Hojoya Festival

Yesterday I went to another festival in Fukuoka. Local people call it Hojoya. Hojoya is one of the three biggest festival annually held in Hakata, Fukuoka. It is a sign that autumn will come soon.

The Hojoya festival is said to have originated in the year 720 at the Usa Hachiman-gu Shinto Shrine in Oita to commemorate the war dead. Since then, the festival has been an event for honoring the living. It is held in Fukuoka every year from September 12 – 18 at the Hakozakigu Shinto Shrine in Higashi Ward. The main path of the shrine is lined with open air stalls, and it is well known for being the only time that Hakata champon is sold at Hakozakigu (copied from http://www.city.fukuoka.lg.jp/english/hakataculture/bunka100901.html)

I went to this festival twice. First, on August 15th with my roommate. Second, august 18th (the last day of the festival) with Dishna, my Sri Lankan friend. Basically, Hojoya is similar with other festival held in Japan. You could see many open air stalls (approximately 500 stalls) with lots of variety of food.
But Hojoya seems to be quiet interesting because you could also see games that you rarely find in other festivals. This kind of games are those you usually read or see in manga and anime. It does remind me of some manga.
Here are some pics about the festival:

Takoyaki the must have food in every festival in Japan. In this Hojoya festival you can get the giant tako for 500 Yen. Pretty expensive but it's worth it. Simpe tips for takoyaki lovers who doesnt have boyfriend : just go and buy any takoyaki based on the kakoii-ness of the takoyaki man. The taste will just be the same!! ;p

The Colorful Candy. Japanese likes cute things like this :)

Cute Banana Chocolate and Pineapple. Really want to have some but they sold it for 300 Yen each (banana) and 200 yen (one small slice of pineapple)! But they also offer a play called jan kem pong. If you win, you can get 2 bananas or pineapple for the same prices. But still, it's expensive. Yes, I am a tropical girl and still surprised by the price of tropical fruit here in Japan.

My favorite! Obake House or Ghost House. Since Japanese ghost stories are very scary (you can see it through their movie), I dont wanna miss the chance to feel the sensation of Obake House in Japan. We have to pay for 500 Yen if you want to enter it. And yes I did, but I had to admit it wasnt scary at all. We had to walk through some kind of labyrinth and suddenly the ghost showed up. But they rarely surprised us. The most interesting part was the group of Japanese young girls who screamed and cried. They managed to be cute everytime and everywhere. Haha!! Ahh, and since I have never experienced Indonesian ghost house in pasar malam, I couldnt make a comparison. I bet pretty similar though! :D

The obake (ghost) in front of the obake house.

FOOD I bought (Takoyaki) and food I wanted to buy but unfortunately I didn't because of financial problems.

The game. Doesn't it remind you about a scene in manga? I was really happy and suddenly Thanked God because I finally could see it by my eyes. :)

The performances . I couldn't explain because I didn't understand and had no one to ask. ;(

and this is how Hojo ya looks like from the end of the festival. Most people walk until the shrine gate and prayed there. Japanese usually throws a 5 Yen coin into the shrine and wish something. Why 5 yen? My roommate said 5 Yen is the sign of luck.

The festival might be not that unique, but I love it since there were crowds, I could join the Japanese event, saw how they enjoy the festival, and of course experience things that I could only read in manga before. Japan is soooooo nice, who wants to leave Japan, then? ;p