The city of Kagoshima has been holding it's Meiji restoration anniversary event every few months for the last couple years, I think. This time, it's running from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4, but it's really been scaled back. Previous incarnations have had a Family Mart Konbini truck, twice the number of food tables, and almost four times the number of shochu and beer vendors. I got up here at 7:30 PM Saturday night and everything was already shut down, which would have been unheard of last year. On Sunday, I wasn't able to get out of the apartment until 2:30 PM, and I first wanted to go down to the Volunteer Center at the other end of the city to see what I could catch at the festival for the disabled. That was scheduled to end at 4, and by 3:30 I figured I'd better go look at Amu Plaza before coming over here at the river.
Most of the activities are on the Tenmonkan-side of the river, with a couple classes in the Tourist Information Center building on the main train station side.
One booth displayed Meiji-era toys, including the ball and hammer, jump ropes, tops, and a notched stick with a propellor on the end (you run a second stick over the notches, and the vibrations cause the propellor to spin).
A history association showed off biwa and samisen instruments.
Of course, we also have the restoration actors waiting to pose for photos. The "soldier" in the center had been portrayed by a very tall young guy in the past, but this time it's a very tall young woman.
She's very tall.
They had live music scheduled on the hour, and stage shows throughout the day. But, most of that had ended by 4:30, so I went to Maruya Gardens department store to check out the "Wine Picnic" there. That turned out to be a waste of time, so I returned home and started processing photos and video before eating dinner. There was some music at 6, 7 and 8 PM, but I couldn't get out of the apartment until after dinner at 7:15. I swung by Amu Plaza, and their Halloween stuff was long over. Then I walked over to the river in time to see the Little Cherries elementary school jazz band go on the stage in the river. They're very talented, but I've seen them several times before, and their repertoire consists of mainly 1940-50's American big band jazz pieces. Very "standard."
My schedule this coming week is looking packed, but I may return once or twice during the week to see what the historical plays and local dialect classes are like. After that, we've got the Ohara traditional dance festival in Tenmonkan Saturday night and Sunday morning. I have to work Saturday, but I want to sample some of Ohara if I can. After that, I'll try to get back up to the river for the last of the Furusato event Sunday. If I'm lucky.
Shadow dancing.
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