EDDIEWONG

A festival at the Tsukinomiya shrine 調神社 (a rabbit shrine) in Urawa, Saitama, which falls on the 12th of December annually. Supposedly one of the biggest of it’s kind with approx. 1,000 stalls lining the streets leading up to the shrine.

Due to the crazy amounts of people, I had to shoot pics from a distance before being shoved around. These are the best I could do:

Lots and lots of people.

Takoyaki – octopus balls.

Okonomiyaki – like a Japanese veg pancake thingy.

Sausages!

Squids!

Scoop as many fishes as you can before the paper net dissolves.

Yakizakana – smoked fish on sticks.

Omusoba – omelette wrapped soba noodles.

Video game stall.

Yakisoba noodles.

Meaty sausages on bones!

Lucky string draw – pick a string and see what your attached prize is (anything from a sticker to a PSP).

Pickled white radish (?).

Dried squid snacks.

Ancient colourful candies.

It’s a really long road to the shrine.

Grilled steaks! You so know I bought one!

Fruits wrapped in syrup candy.

Bean bread.

Toffee fruits.

Entrance to the Tsukinomiya shrine where more stalls await you.

I told you so – it’s a bunny shrine (^_^)

Character masks.

Spices.

Lucky charms.

People praying at the shrine.

Hanging lucky charms.

Character whistles.

Shoot a gift and if it topples over, it’s yours.

Obanyaki – Bean and custard cream pancakes.

Kumade – lucky charms for businesses. They range from ¥2,000 to well over ¥2,000,000

Lots and lots of Kumades.

Cute versions.

Seafood stalls. Octopus anyone?

Ancient ghost house – dudes pulling strings and mops drop on your head. woooooo… scarey!

Hard candies.

Chocolate bananas.

Antique pinball machines.

Food stalls.

 
Ancient so-called magic freak show

A friend’s photo I stole

The guys dragged me into this show which I had no idea what it was to begin with. I see some dude on the stage with his face painted like a heavy metal dude and he was wearing a hat that had horns on it. In short, the dude kinda resembled a demon gone-totally-wrong.

The dude started performing some dodgey magic acts (which I’m sure everyone knows how it works) and as usual, the Japanese audience seem amazed. The dude then proceeded with the show by pulling out this long ball-bearing chain, fed it through his nose until it came out from his mouth before flossing himself! He was like flossing his head! Then he tied one end of the chain to a bucket of water and lifted it high into the air, all while the chain was still wrapped between his nose and mouth.

His last act was kinda like ‘burn yourmouth with candles’: started off with one lit candle then shoved it into his mouth and closed it for a split second before pulling it back out (still lit). Then he proceed to using 3 candles, then 5, then 10 and so on.

That wasn’t so bad. Then comes along his female accomplice – a chick that looked like she was straight out of The RING: slim, long black hair, white face, black eyes, etc. Looked hell freaky, man.

She starts the show by lighting 50 tightly-held candles, holds it high in the air and allows the wax to drip into her mouth. The demon dude was saying how hot that would be but no one in the audience seemed to give a damn. Anyway, once the freaky chick’s mouth was full of wax, she spits it all out at the candles and whoooomph… a massive fireball lights up the air. The audience was gob-smacked at this point because they least expected it and the fact that it was aimed towards them. What seemed funny was, a handful of the guys in the audience took the brunt of it – covered in wax.

Her next and final act of the show will scar me for life – all hell broke loose! She pulls out this headless snake from a bag, holds it out to the audience so they can touch and confirm that it is real. Although headless, it was still writhing which leads me to believe the head was cut off just before she got onto the stage. Anyway, once the audience was done with touching the snake, she shoved the top part into her mouth and bit into it! Everyone in the audience could hear the continuous crunching sound as she was munching on it! At that point, I was close to passing out. Then she started to yank the thing cuz it was just too thick and chewy to snap. She yanked and yanked and yank until she was finally able to snap it and continued to chew on what was left in her mouth. At this point, I felt something heavy in my pants. Then she just chewed on it until she was able to swallow it. Once swallowed, she opened her mouth to the audience as to prove nothing was left behind before tossing the snake remains into a screaming audience. But the snake thrown into the audience was not the real thing, just rubber. But the one she munched on was real for sure.

As we got out, the guys were all laughing. They had seen the show last year and knew it was something I wouldn’t want to see thus thought it would be funny to trick me into seeing it. How cruel of them! Apparently, the snakes from last year had heads on them before being chewed in half.

Crazy sh*t!