A festival centered around the Zenkokji Temple and the Akagi Shrine was a good reason to head out. We had already gotten much of the prep work completed for our departure from Tokyo and we had the time to spare. We wanted to make good use of the last few days we had here so this was right up our alley. We zipped down to the main temple where they had a kids zone. The kids were learning how to spin tops and making old time toys. They gave us a schedule of events and we saw that the next performance was a little bit of a hike away at the Akagi Shrine. A-hiking we did go and we saw a demonstration of kuruma ningyo kind of puppetry. This is puppetry where the puppeteer sits on a wheeled seat, attaches the legs of the puppet to his feet, and uses his hands to manipulate the arma and face of the puppet. Once they showed us all the parts the puppeteer and his back up band put on a show. After this we walked to a park where the kids were all playing. I was searching for some stamps but it turns out the stamp quest was not until the next day. We stopped in a hole in the wall restaurant and have some things that we did not know what they were. We cooled down in the restaurant as the temps are starting to rise in Tokyo. Then it was back on the train.
If only I was still collecting these chop stick holders
The Zenkokji Temple
Some sort of mythical beast
Spinning tops
A strawberry top for a hat
Old building at the Akagi Shrine
God's Dream is the translation
Prayers
A big centipede
Some gates to top it all off
Howling wolf
Cute dogs
The band is warming up
A puppet master describing the equipment
First the legs, then the rest of the attachments
Boo!
This puppet does look a bit scary
It must be the eyebrows
They were playing music behind him
The lady on the left narrated the story
Her glasses make her look a bit dour
A cute kid on her dads shoulders
The narrative was sung or chanted
Put your hands up in the air!
The puppet is getting tired
The crowd goes wild!
More mythical beasts
Rabbits are the shrine's animal
We almost stopped to buy some classic homewares
A sticker
Celebrating the light fixtures
Walking back
More fine ironwork
Five little pigs lure us in
Decorations on the wall
Seats at the bar
My sour melon, pork and tofu dish
Leslie ordered fried rice, or so she thought she did
Next to us two guys were wearing Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirts, they were going to the concert that evening
Snake juice anyone?
An entire team came onto the train
