Niihama is on the small island of Shikoku, in Ehime prefecture. It is not the main city on the island the capital being Matsuyama. The reason we travelled to Niihama was to experience the Taiko festival there. From our hostel in Hiroshima we boarded a streetcar at 6am to get to the train station and from there we took the sakura train to Okayama. From Okayama we boarded the express shizoke to Nyugawa. We based ourselves here at Hotel Trend Saijo, as it we had been unable to book a place to stay in Niihama that wasn’t ridiculously expensive due to the festival. This town was only a short train journey away from Niihama so it was still easy to get to and saved us a lot of money. We found the hotel in this small residential town and dropped off our bags, unable to check in yet. We grabbed some snacks from the local bakery before walking back to the local train station to get a JR train to Niihama. From the couchsurfing website Scott, an American working at a local school in Niihama had offered to help us experience and be part of the Niihama festival. So on arriving at the train station we met up with Scott and Micky. We were quickly whisked off in the car to a local traditional dress shop as Scott had managed to get Dave to be allowed to be part of the festival helping to hold one of the local floats with Scott and Micky. Dave was kitted out with split toe socks and shoes as well as traditional white shirt and trousers so he could match with the others carrying his float, all floats have different attire. Scott was kind enough to purchase these items for Dave as a very kind welcoming gesture.
After this we travelled in the car to Micho Chi’s house, a lady that Scott had coined his Japanese mum she had taken him under her wing since he had been there. We were warmly greeted and welcomed into her home along with another French couchsurfer. We played with her shiba inu and then she taught us to make Katsu Don, which we ate for lunch alongside a spread of radish, advocado, soup, bread followed by local fruits and biscuits. It was a lovely wholesome experience and after thanking her immensely for her hospitality Scott dropped us back at the train station from which we headed to Saijo.
Lunch at Scotts Japanese grandmothers, shiaba inu and making katsu don
We explored the river area, wandering aimlessly for a bit trying to find where to go before walking down to the main river area where part of the float festival was taking place in Saijo. There were huge floats being carried by lots of men down the banks of the river and into the river marching and bouncing them along. The weather was not the best and some men lost their footing and fell into the water, being rescued by others that were there so that they weren’t trampled on! There was a vibrant festival atmosphere with lots of chanting and food stalls. When it was getting dark and we were getting quite cold we headed back to the train station through the small streets and got on the train to Nyugawa where we could finally check into Hotel Trend Saijo. This was definitely a more standard Japanese hotel with a small room and bathroom with dressing gown and slippers provided alongside some basic toiletries. Perfectly reasonable as a place to sleep though; and nice to have our own room again.
In the morning with food options limited around us and with a long physical day ahead (for Dave at least) we headed to Sukiya to get a beef bowl breakfast on the main road. At around 11 we boarded the train back to Niihama where we were greeted by Scott and Steven and we walked to the main area of the festival where all the floats and people initially gather to start the parade of floats down the streets finally ending at the main festival stadium site. There were about 60 men carrying each float. These were all different and huge and had huge wooden carrying beams that the men all got under to lift. Part of the festival is walking the floats to the festival site but also performing certain chants that are accompanied by lifting the beams above their heads multiple times. Dave was ushered straight in, after being given the floats pink headband and blue overshirt, in between Scott and Steven and set off being part of the team carrying one of the floats. On arriving into the main festival stadium all the floats lined up next to one another with thousands around in the stadium to see the floats and watch as they compete to chant and perform these moves lifting them up and side to side each with the mascots for local areas on them. I met up with some other couchsurfers to watch the floats performing and taking photos. Around the outside of the site were lots of food stalls so we filled up on Japanese fried chicken. The festival goes on all day/ evening but mid afternoon Dave and the others were soaked from the rain and exhausted so after a beer we headed back to the station around 4pm. At the nearby 7/11 we grabbed sandwiches and onigiri and then also headed to the bakery on the way back to the hotel. After warming up in the shower, in the evening we got dinner from the nearby Family Mart, packed our stuff and chilled out watching a movie.
It was an amazing experience to be welcomed by local people in Niihama and for Dave to actually be part of the festival, and that was again due to being open minded and using couchsurfing. We are very grateful to Scott to be able to have experienced Niihama taiko festival in this way. As it was the end of the festival and we were getting through time on our JR pass we headed to Osaka next, very much looking forward to trying all the food there!
Alex
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