今日は会議で長野市・善光寺の近くに行っていました。街をちょっと歩いたので、よく見たら商店街に花火師の店がありました。お店の窓に色んな花火が展示してあって、一つは中身が見せられた。

花火実体があんなにきれいで、玉の中もきれいって、納得です。

花火と言えば、戸倉上山田温泉の千曲川花火大会が近づいています。毎年8月7日に開催されます。北信・東信の中で一番大きい夏の花火大会です。

長野県のHPの説明によると、

「この大会の自慢は、なんといっても迫力ある花火の音！この迫力の秘密は、戸倉上山田温泉一帯の地形にあります。
千曲川を挟むように両側に山が迫っており、その間には幅約2kmの空間しかありません。その狭い空間で打ち上げる花火の音は、周囲の山々に反響して、腹の底にズシンと響きます。」

Today I was in Nagano City near the venerable Zenkoji Temple. While walking the streets in the area, I came across a shop that makes and sells professional-grade fireworks. They had some huge ones displayed in the shop's window. One of them was showing a cross-section.

Fireworks sure are beautiful as they are lit and illuminate the night sky. So it is no wonder that the insides of them are so pretty, too!

Seeing the fireworks shop reminded me that our onsen town Togura Kamiyamada's big Chikuma River Fireworks Display is coming up -- August 7th. It is the biggest summer time fireworks festival in northern Nagano. Not only are the fireworks visually appealing, but the sound reverbrating off the surrounding mountains is also very exciting.

戸倉上山田の千曲川花火大会の詳しくはこちら。Click here for info on Togura Kamiyamada Onsen's Chikuma River Fireworks Festival

戸倉上山田温泉に小さな本屋さんがあります:　西澤書店。もちろん、一般の雑誌と本を販売しているけど、信州に特化した本は沢山そろっています。観光ガイドや山登り、山野草など、信州の何か知りたいなら、西澤書店できっと良い本があります。場所はかめ乃湯通りです。

In our onsen town Togura-Kamiyamada, there is a quaint little bookshop called Nishizawa Shoten. While they have the regular assortment of popular books and magazines, they also feature a large selection of books and guides about Nagano Prefecture. From sightseeing guidebooks to mountain climbing and wildflower guides, you are certain to find what you are looking for here. Located on Kame no Yu Dori street.

上山田温泉の夏祭りの最初の日は何回も着替えながら、次から次へ飛んで回り。

朝は布団上げ、お会計と見送り＠亀清旅館　(作務衣）
水天宮のお祈り＠水と緑と潤いのある公園　(ワイシャツにお神輿の法被）
ついでに下駄供養＠同じ公園　(ワイシャツに戸倉上山田の緑色の法被）
お神輿の魂入れ　(お神輿法被に着替えなおす）
近所の１１区のお神輿担ぎ　(私物の青い色の祭り法被）
上山田お神楽保存会と獅子舞巡り　(お神楽の格好）
祭り若連の皆とご神体神輿　(白い短パンにお神輿の法被）

６回も着替えながら、長い一日でした。

アメリカで複数の役＝「複数の帽子をかぶる」と言います。日本の場合、複数の法被を着るって事ですね。

ちなみに、水天宮で行った神事の中で、今年は特別な祈りがありました。本来なら、水天宮の神事は２つな微妙な部分がある:　
生活や農業などに水が必要な一方、水の感謝するけど、
川が暴れて被災発生するもう一方で、水から守るとの祈りも。
3．11の津波で、「水から守る」との部分は特に大切に感じました。

この夏祭りでかける汗は東北の被災者の皆様への応援も入っています。

The first day of Kamiyamada Onsen's summer festival is always a bit hectic, including way too many changes of clothing.

This is how my day went:

Futon flipping and checking the guests out (wearing a 'samue' work outfit)
Water God ceremony at our town's main park (Omikoshi happi coat over dress clothes)
Geta sandal offering at the same park (Green innkeepers happi coat over dress clothes)
Omikoshi blessing (back to the Omikoshi happi coat)
Carrying our neighborhood's Omikoshi (my personal blue 'matsuri' happi coat)
The Okagura lion dance troupe procession (okagura garb)
The main festival omikoshi (white shorts and Omikoshi happi coat)

6 clothing changes made for a long, long day!

In the States, there's a saying about wearing multiple hats when doing more than one activity. In Japan, it should be wearing multiple happi coats!

By the way, this year's Water God ceremony had special importance. The ceremony always walks a fine line between thanking the god for supplying life-giving water, and praying from protection from that same water's destructive flooding potential. This year, the latter was especially pertinent in the aftermath of the 3.11 tsunami.

It is my hope that the sweat from this weekend's matsuri will also be for the betterment of the people that suffered in the 3.11 triple disasters.

週末の温泉夏祭りに向かって、準備が続いています。私は今年から獅子からお神輿の方の小頭になりました。

今日はお神輿の準備の作業でした。祭りの広場に移って、そして最後の仕上がり。祭りはいよいよ明日から!

Preparations for this weekend's onsen summer festival are reaching a feverish pitch. Starting this year, I switched from the giant shi-shi lion group to the omikoshi group.

For those of you not familiar with 'matsuri' (Japanese festivals), an 'omikoshi' is basically a portable version of an area's local shrine. It is carried around town, stopping at various places for a special blessing.

Sounds harmless enough, right?

Wrong! This is more X-Games material than some quaint cultural feature from National Geographic.

The omikoshi weighs upwards of a ton and is carried on the shoulders of 40, 50 even more people depending on its size. They usually process around town in a somewhat controlled manner. But when they return to the main festival site for the grand finale, all controls are cut loose. Multiple omikoshi are in action -- they taunt each other and often crash into each other, sometimes crushing the people carrying them. When the omikoshi spins around, the momentum sometimes gets going so fast, especially around the corners, that the carriers can easily fall and get trampled. That's not to mention the omikoshi getting out of control and crashing into the audience.

All of this is set to a rythmic chant of 'wasshoi', from the carriers, the handlers, the people watching, the taiko drummers encouraging everyone, and the ladies standing on top of the omikoshi urging the carriers on.

But before the wasshoi, there is the final preparation for the omikoshi, which I'm doing today. Here's looking forward to the festival!

戸倉上山田温泉にとっては、夏祭りが一年の一番大きいイベントです。毎年7月の海の日の連休で行います。祭りへ向かう準備、当日の汗、終わった後の片づけ、そしてまた来年に向かっての準備。

今は今年の祭りの準備の最中です。昨日は我々旅館青年部が担当する「下駄供養」の準備でした。

我らの宿にお泊りになるお客様が下駄を履いて浴衣のままで温泉街をぶらぶらする習慣です。一年間を通して、下駄が段々古くなる。その使われ切ったげたを集めて夏祭りの中心となる水天宮の横にオブジェのジャイアント下駄と合わせて、設置する。そして夏祭りの最初の碑にご来賓及び関係者に集まって頂いて、下駄供養を行います。

昨日は青年部の皆で温泉の旅館の全部を回って、古い下駄を集めて、温泉の真ん中の水と緑と潤いのある公園で準備しました。（OBの俊樹さん、ご協力を有難うございました！）

これで1年間のお客様のおお越しに感謝、感謝　！

Here in Togura Kamiyamada Onsen, our annual summer festival is the biggest event of the year. Everyone works hard on the preparations, puts in a lot of sweat during the festival itself, helps out with the clean-up afterwards, and then starts preparing all again for the next year's festival.

My fellow ryokan junior innkeepers and I are in charge of the geta sandal offering at the festival. Guests of the inns often wear the wooden sandals and go for strolls around town in their yukata robes. Over the year, the geta get worn down. So for the festival, we gather the worn out geta and place them in a mound next to the Suitengu (water god shrine). Then during the festival, we do a special offering of the geta in thanks for all the guests from the over the year.

Yesterday, the junior innkeepers and I went around to all of the inns and gathered the worn out geta. Then we piled up the geta with on ornamental giant sandal. Now we're ready to give thanks for all of our guests at the big festival this weekend.