This Sunday we made plans to go to to the Kanamara Matsuri ( also called Fertility Festival) at the Kanayama Shrine! When we arrived at Kawasaki, we took the local train to Kawasakidaishi and we noticed that the concentration of foreign people was going up rapidly. We even talked to some American woman and discovered a group were stationed at the navy base here in Japan. After a train ride of only 3 stops it was nice to feel the fresh air again since the train was very crowded. At the station we already heard some of the festivities that were going on there. We were just in time for the parade where people were carrying around two giant penises from wood and a big pink one through the crowd. It was very cheery and everyone had much fun!

Of course there were more things that reminded us this was a fertility festival. Like the flags decorating the temple gates with 'certain patterns' and 'funny' shaped candy. You saw people eating the candy everywhere, it was a most amusing sight. The little stands who sold stuff were VERY crowded. If you think you got cramped in a train in Japan before… well this was many times worse. There was even a time where we got pushed from all sides and if you did not move away you could get really squashed. Eventually we managed to go to a few stands. There was a stand which sold 'male' flutes and small pottery of 'male' sake bottles. The stand next to it sold special sake (rice wine) of which the name would be indecent at first glance, if you can read Japanese. We got separated in the crowd, but Dennis managed to go to the shop which sold candy. The penis-shaped candy was available in every color and size. The crowd was wild for it, since the tent was rocking due to all the pushing. When we eventually escaped the crowd, we saw a man who had a show with a real life monkey. It was very well trained and the show was great to see. He did many tricks like jumping over a lat and doing a lot of funny expressions and his trainer glued it all together to make a nice comedy show with his monkey friend. Afterwards he asked a donation, which we happily gave.

We continued to see the rest of the temple. There we first noticed the ema on display: small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshippers write their prayers or wishes. Some of them were very nice because they were drawn by a manga artist. After admiring them we came across some statues of penises were you could pose and take pictures. It was very funny how everyone posed. The usually shy Japanese were not so shy anymore, especially after a few beers! We, of course, took a nice picture as well. There was even one were you could sit on it… yes and people did. When we made our round we tried to take look at a stand with an enormous queue. It was selling handmade candy in the shape off… you can guess? Yes, very lifelike vaginas and penises. While we took pictures we managed to buy one and skip the line. Sometimes it is very handy to be a foreigner.

After our exploration we decided to walk to Kawasaki Station instead of taking the cramped train again. The sun was shining and the weather was quite nice. When we took some random turns we discovered the Daihonzan Kawasaki Daishi Heikenji Temple complex by accident. It was quite busy and surprisingly there were matsuri food stands as well. Although a bit crowded, there were no enormous queues at the food stands and we took this opportunity to get a sausage on a stick and shared a piece of okonomiyaki. We explored the temple complex which was dominated by the pagoda in the middle. It was very beautiful but we were a bit disappointed when we went inside. The pond with sunny resting places for the turtles in it, was very nice though, especially since the turtles were standing on top of each other to get more sun. The entire complex had a bit of a strange look since everything seemed to be so new that there was absolutely no temple atmosphere. Except some decorations and the temples main room everything was all very modern. Only a few still looked very old. On one hand the restoration was nicely done, but on the other hand it lost its 'old touch' quite a lot. They had a bit of a mix of Buddhism and Shinto, which is quite common in Japan. But in overall it was a nice surprise and we really enjoyed it there. When we left we also took some pictures of a VERY strange temple next to the complex. It had more the feeling of an Indian temple, again very new and to be honest quite ugly. We took a picture anyway. We continued our walk to Kawasaki station in the very nice weather, and after 45 minutes went back home to Tora.