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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.