Neighborhood Mikoshi Parade

Each May, a gathering is held for the neighborhood children at a tiny nearby shrine. This year's event was on Sunday.

The shrine is a branch of our town's larger Inari jinja, and like all Inari jinja, there are lots of red torii gates.

The kids first dined on onigiri (rice balls) and zenzai (sweet bean and mochi soup). As you can see, Jared doesn't like zenzai.

Everett, however, loves it.

The kids then proceeded to pay taiko (drums).

This is Everett with his best bud, Ma-chan.

Further up the hill behind the shrine are the ruins of an old brick building. An ojiisan told the children the story behind the ruins:

Just after World War II, New Zealand was in charge of overseeing the rebuilding of this area of Japan. The foreigners in charge of the reconstruction were given access to any homes or buildings they wanted. Because the brick building was situated on a hill and overlooked much of the town, they inhabited it during this time. But before they leaving the area, the New Zealanders destroyed the building to keep any clans from gain power over the area because they had the advantage of a view overlooking the area.

Here's the view of the ocean from where the building stood.

After storytime, the children carried mikoshi (hand-carried vehicles containing the shrine deity), banners, drums and offering boxes throughout the neighborhood. The drum signaled to the residents that the mikoshi were passing, and they would come out of their houses and put money into the offering boxes.

Jared walking beside Maya-chan, the girl who lives across the street from us.

Everyone took a brief juice box rest at the neighborhood gathering place before heading back to the shrine and then home. This pic shows Everett and Jared enjoying time with Dad.