According to the Japan National Tourism Guide, Yokote is
an area that is famous for the Kamakura festival held around winter time. At
the Kamakura festival, tourist may see dome shaped houses made out of snow
called Kamakura where they may be able to drink sake and eat food inside of the
Kamakura. Recently I was given the opportunity to visit Yokote to go to the
Kamakura festival as an optional field trip for my JAS 435 Exploring Tohoku
Culture class. At Yokote, I was able to visit a Kindergarten where I could make
a mini Kamakura with children, and I was able to go to the Kamakura festival.
Below is a picture of a mini Kamakura from the Kindergarten.
At the Kindergarten, there were multiple mini Kamakuras on the ground. There
were also about four bigger Kamakura’s that people could reside in. Inside of
the bigger Kamakuras, we could talk with some of the local people and drink
sake or amazake with food. The local people were very friendly and they were
interested to learn about the backgrounds of their foreign guests. Even though
my Japanese is not that good, I was somehow able to communicate with the
locals. The sake that I drank was very warm and although I do not remember the
name of the mochi-like food I ate, it was also very good. The amazake was also
very warm and it can be described as a milk-like drink filled with rice that
does not contain alcohol.
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One of the many mini Kamakura at the Kindergarten
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Socializing with the locals
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At
the Kindergarten, we were also given the opportunity to build mini Kamakuras
and help decorate them with the children. In order to build the Kamakura, we
had to use the snow from the ground and place them into the bucket. Once the
bucket was full, another student would empty the snow on the ground somewhere
so that snow has the shape of the bucket. Finally a kindergarten would use a
small shovel to change the pile of snow into a mini Kamakura. Here is a picture
of two of my friends also in Tohoku Culture digging snow from the ground and
placing it into a bucket to get turned into a mini Kamakura. Later on during
the day, some of the local adults would place a wax candle inside the mini Kamakura
where they would light the candle up at night and create a walkway that would
light up at night.
Besides build Kamakuras at the Kindergarten, some of us
had the opportunity to make mochi by pounding mochi rice using a hammer to
change the mochi rice into mochi. I had done this before for a different event,
so I did not participate this time. But based on what I remember from my
previous experience, it is really exciting to hold the hammer and pound the
mochi while someone pours water onto the mochi in order to keep it moist after
about three or four attempts of hitting the mochi rice. Once the mochi is
ready, it can be dipped into things like azuki beans, sesame seeds, and peanut
butter in order to be eaten.
After staying at the Kindergarten, we had finally left
that place and went to the Kamakura festival at night. The Kamakura festival is
another popular festival in Japan where people build Kamakuras that cover a
street and place ice statues on the street as well that may resemble popular
Japanese characters such as Totoro from Hayao Mizayaki’s movie “My Neighbor Totoro”
released in 1988. In addition, some of these ice statues may actually be
advertisements for local businesses so they may resemble things such as life
sized plastic models for a fashion store. For my trip, I was able to stay here
for a couple of hours at the festival.
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Totoro from "My Neighbor Totoro"
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In addition to seeing ice statues of popular Japanese
characters at the festival, I was able to go to the nearby Elementary school
where I could see children taking turns riding down a slide made out of snow.
At the elementary school, the field in front of the school was covered with
mini Kamakura’s that had a candle inside of each of them. Therefore it looked
really beautiful to see all of the Kamakura’s lighted up at night.
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A wall of Kamakuras lighted up at night that I passed by
while walking to the Elementary school
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In front of the elementary school
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At Yokote, I was able to stay inside of a Kamakura for
the first time and participate at the Kamakura festival. It was nice staying
inside of the Kamakura because I was able to eat mochi and drink sake with
amazake while I got to speak with the local people. In addition, it was also
fun building the mini Kamakuras at night. After going to the Kamakura festival,
I will always remember the beauty of the Kamakuras lighted up at night and the
ice statues that people had built for the Kamakura festival. For anyone that
decides to visit Yokote in the future, I recommend that they go to the Kamakura
festival during winter. It is a great opportunity that they will not forget.
