The park and the cool boat

Ah, some beautiful green leaves! Well, continuing with the continuting saga, here are Jen and I at Osaka-jo the main park in town. We came here to see a festival that we heard about, but couldn`t find any information on in English. We just knew the dates and the place, so here we are waiting for something to happen. The park had very well kept gardens and it`s on an island in the river, so the breezes were very nice. There were some boats decorated with flags, and soon, we began to see boats coming down the river, being rowed by groups of men in traditional clothing to the beat of traditional drums. A little further down, we were luckly enough to see a group of these guys pulling one of the wooden boats out of the river.




It didn`t look like it was going to budge, so we started to leave. But then...!

Oh my gosh!

They hauled the boat up the incline...

Straightened it out...

And pulled it down the street!!

What a sight! We were kind of proud to be the only forgieners witnessing this amazing thing. Just goes to show the rewards of wandering around once in a while :)

We watched as the boat got loaded up with kids in traditional costume. Then a child took the huge wooden drumsticks in hand and began beating out a rhythm on the giant drum at the back. The men geared up and hauled the boat down the street, a crowd of people in kimonos following them. What a cool thing to see!