A farmer's market.
Tanuki masks.
Snoopy selling donuts.
Guess who - no, not Santa...
A beautiful,windy, fall day.
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Tanuki kun
Tokushima's own soccer team - Vortis.
For Peter.
Representatives from the Osaka aquarium.
Mos Burger mascot.
Two strange looking Tanuki.
Tanuki characters come in all shapes and colors.
Haruto's first cotton candy.
The orignal instant cup ramen. Samples served scorchingly hot!
Garbage station - EACH bucket for a different kind of trash.
Senbei and purple potato chips
Candy apples, strawberries, pineapple.
Games.
From the Osaka Aquarium, Alaskan otter.
Playground at the park.
Before work on Friday, Naoko, Haruto and I went over to the Tanuki Festival at Aibahama Park. Tanuki is translated as 'raccoon dog' but looks nothing like a raccoon (although some do have black circles around their eyes). I think they look much more like a calico fox. Which you'd never guess from the character representations that you see outside bars and liquor stores, or the examples here. They eat plants, bugs and rodents I think, and live in the mountains. There are many Tanuki related stories, some about them being sly or lazy or drunkards?, and others about them helping lost travelers...
It was quite a nice, and large festival taking up both sides of the park. Lots of local produce and fish products, and handmade jellies, sweets, pickles, etc. Some games for the children, craft areas for both children and adults, performances, food sampling, raffles, tons of different characters (Japan has character mascots for EVERYTHING!), etc. It wasn't too crowded since we were there on Friday so that was nice. Before going to work I tried a Mos Burger hot dog - really just a typical Japanese sausage - they're all the same - and some fried octopus legs. But we sampled the first instant cup ramen (my tongue is still recovering from being scorched), delicious popcorn made by the Shikoku Gas Company, cotton candy made by Haruto, and rice made in a $1500 rice cooker. We bought drinks from a vending machine that talked to us in Awaben (the local dialect) which was pretty funny.
Quite a fun way to spend the morning.
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