We went to the Awa de Festa, in Awa Town first. It was about a 45 minute ride I think. The purpose of the Festa was to highlight the vegetables and fruit grown in this region. Evidently although a lot of vegetables are grown in Tokushima prefecture, people don't eat as much as they should. I find that a little hard to believe though, it seems to me people eat a lot of vegetables here. But I suppose that's only if one cooks at home, store bought prepared items are quite low on vegetables. So there were even more than the usual number of produce stalls - all festivals, and many other events, as well as highway rest stops, all seem to have local produce stands. I love it.
So we sampled different vegetable preparations - I loved the carrot / ricotta pudding which was a dessert (first ricotta I've had since I've been here), didn't care much for the chocolate vegetable fondue though. I had some yummy cabbage and chicken meatball soup for lunch and topped it off with ice cream that had the taste of the special sugar that's made here (it wasn't spectacular).
There was a cooking contest - vegetable cakes as well as salads, soups, etc., an activity where we filled a tray with what we thought one person should eat (vegetables) in a day. It was surprisingly little compared to what the US gov. says we should eat. There were a few games and activities for children and ALL the local characters. Naoko told me Japan now has 4 - 5,000 characters! By characters I mean people dressed up like someone/thing - think Mickey Mouse at Disney. All prefectures have a character and the character related 'goods' are real money makers since you always have to bring EVERYBODY a souvenier WHENEVER you go anywhere! Every year there is a country-wide contest for the most popular character. These days many cities and even smaller towns have their own character to promote local goods. Today, in addition to my favorite (although he might have dropped in the standings today) Sudachi kun, there was Tokushi chan, (and possibly my new favorite) Fujikochan, and a few others. Then there was a 'farmer's outfit' (sort of) fashion show, and some other presentations throughout the day.
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| A beautiful (private) house at the entrance to the festival. |
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| Advertising a rafting outfit - sprained ankle not withstanding I'd love to go rafting again - it was so much fun. |
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| There were a few tables but this is lunch seating! |
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| Fill your tray with a day's vegetables. |
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| Chocolate vegetable fondue - nope, not a winner in my opinion. |
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| My lunch, cabbage soup with chicken meatballs - good. And can you believe only about $1.00! |
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| The cooking stage - it's a truck. |
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| I keep forgetting to take pictures BEFORE I start eating things! |
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| Fishing for goldfish. |
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| I liked the costumes. |
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| My new favorite, sorry Sudachi kun, this is Fujikochan. She is a fairy, or pixie, who represents the wisteria flowers. |
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| This is Tokushi chan, Haruto's favorite. She's a fish, sometimes does the Awa Odori dance, and is one of the few characters who can actually speak. |
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| These are 2 new characters - I've forgotten their names but they represent the Yoshino River. They look like Teletubbies to me... |
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| Animal and bracelet balloons. |
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| This is the new Awami chan. |
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| She has a tarai udon (a special bucket that was originally used for bathing but is now used for special udon (noodles)) on her back. |
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| The whole gang. |
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| Contestants in the fashion show. |
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| Introducing the 'farmer's outfits' fashion show. |
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| The cooking contest entries. |
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| One of the fashion show class teachers. |
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| The back of the cooking truck. |
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| More produce. There are so many kinds of oranges and tangerines here, all with a little different flavor. Lots of tomatoes today. |
We kept trying to leave but new things would start happening. At one point someone came up to me and said hello and it was a volunteer who had been volunteering at another festival last fall - the tarai udon fest. We had spoken a little bit and she remembered me.
We finally went back to the car and onto the Sand Pillars (Douchu). Naoko, and other people, kept warning me that they weren't anything compared to the Grand Canyon - I don't know why it would be compared to that, but they didn't want me to be dissapointed! It was small but quite interesting as it was in the middle of regular mountains. You can see the layers of earth as well. Evidently it used to be much more striking but with the wind and rain it's been eroding.
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| There were 3 people working on the side. |
On the way home we stopped at a great little playground we had spotted - it was surrounded by cherry trees that were blooming. Here and there some trees are blooming, some aren't yet.
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