Kiku Matsuri

(Chrysanthemum Festival)

When I found out that the Kiku Festival was in November in a city near by mine I knew that it was a necessity to go. Naomi said that she would take me, Melissa, Jenny, and Jenelle to Yahiko for the afternoon to help us get around. We decided on going Nov.10^th after work around 2:30 p.m. Work got out @ 12 and RAIN started pouring down on us @ 12:30!!! Just my luck! Un-phased by this sudden turn of events, we decided that it would be worth our while to suck it up and brave the elements, after all, since I’m only planning to stay a year, this is my only opportunity to see this festival. It was definitely worth it and mother nature spared us an hour of rain-free weather just in time for looking around. Because of the weather, there were barely any visitors which was a huge difference than the week prior when Makiko tried to go but had to turn around and go home because there wasn’t any parking.

As soon as we got there, me and Saya hit up the cotton candy stand!
my namesake

Since the festival was on Yahiko Mountain..it was surrounded by shrines and statues, here is one of them:

You can still see ladies walking around in traditional kimonoslanterns surrounding the premises

Co-yu (Autumn colors)

its wierd to think that I've never experienced autumn colors before now and Im 21 years old. There are so many things you just dont realize you are missing out on until you travel
A kiku plant..this is all one plant

Another various type of Kiku.. it looked like fireworksAccording to the people at the Matsuri, Kiku are really hard to grow and mantain so many people from around Japan come to this festival even though there arent many actual kiku to see

Kiku bonzai installments..this one won I thinkbefore you pray at the shrine, you are supposed to wash your mouth out and hands with this cleansing holy water
She is the cutest child in the world..even though im babysitting, Im throwing in English lessons too, she's going to be the top of her class!
I dont know if these are Kiku or just used for the arrangement but they were really pretty

The guy before did this pose and made it look so fun, so I wanted to try it...but I just look awkward..and it wasnt so much fun afterall.. just a whole bunch of people staring at the crazy geijin girl
Even saw some deer

A wierd tree that I tried to convince Jenelle to put her head into so I could take a picture but she didnt so now there is a picture of a boring tree on my blog! Damn Jenelle, such a party pooper!The end