Futon Daiko Festival

To celebrate the Harvest Moon, there's a regional festival that takes place every year in the town that I am staying in. To my surprise, it's a quite popular and large festival! It's called the Futon Daiko festival, and it takes place at the Mozuhachiman Taisho here in Sakai. On a beautiful sunny Sunday, I decided to check it out.

Although much of the festivities take place at the shrine location, the actual Futon Daikos are carried around town at different times. A quick search tells me that there are around 13 of them. This is how the city website describes it:

About four meters high and weighting about three tons, the Futon Daiko consists of a platform with a taiko drum, on top of which are five overlapping layers of vermillion cushions. About 70 people carry the Futon Daiko, with their unique shouts of "bera-bera-bera-sho-shoi" mixing with the sound of the drum as they proceed through towns. Afterward, the drum is dedicated to the shrine.

The Futon Daiko coming down the street. 

It's huge! It must be really tiring to haul this thing around.

Aw. here's a mini Futon Daiko, being carried around by kids.

And here's a Futon Daiko at rest, next to the shrine.

There were also a really big market set up on the shrine grounds, with food and game vendors.

Strolling through the stalls

Lots of vendors set up around the shrine grounds

This one sold all kinds of fruit dipped into melted sugar

Lots of stalls had games set up. In this one, you can catch little crabs to
take home. In others, you could catch fish.

I got some fried chicken to nibble on. I don't know
what it is, but Japanese chicken is always so tender and
juicy and flavorful!

And, I got a shaved ice. This was like... the opposite of
the snowy flake ice in Taiwan, This was 'barely crushed'
ice. :P Still, it was tasty on a hot day!

There were so many people at the festival!