In Japan, addresses rarely have street names. Instead they use area names followed by neighborhood, street block and then actual house/building number. Everyone who lives here in Kiminomori which is what the community is called named after the golf course its on, uses Kiminomori as the main identifier in their address ie Kiminomori Minami (minami = south, there is also Kiminomori Higashi or east). So an address for example would read Kiminomori Minami 5-13-6. The 5 stands for 5-Chome (pronounced CHO-MEH), chome meaning neighborhood followed by the 13th block and number 6 for the house number. Every summer the different neighborhoods of Kiminomi hold their summer matsuri (festival) where all the neighbors and kids get together. Yesterday was the 2-Chome summer matsuri and my wife and I walked over with the dog and I snapped a few pictures.
Kiminomi has 11 parks scattered through the community and they are host to the Matsuri festivals. The festival was noticeably toned down this year, missing many of its stalls and illumination they usually do. This was planned in advanced to help cut back on electricity use as Japan is still under an effort to keep electricity usage down to aid those in Tohoku still reeling from the March disasters. This didn’t stop kids from dressing up in their yukata, a casual summer kimon. People wearing yukata are a common sight in Japan at fireworks displays, festivals, and other summer events. The yukata has gone from traditional as you see on the girls in the above pictures to more modern yukata style dresses as you see in the picture below.
Typical foods at matsuri include yakisoba (fried noodles with sauce), karage (fried chicken), yakitori (grilled chicken on skewers) and kakigori (flavored shaved ice dessert). The festivals are always 100% run by the neighbors in Kiminomori and its a good time to get out and socialize with everyone. We’re looking forward to our 5-Chome matsuri at the end of August!
