Sakura Machi
Saturday, April 1, 2017
The city decided to host their Sakura Machi (Cherry blossom village) festa this weekend. The idea was to have food and entertainment for anyone that wanted to do night cherry blossom viewing. The problems being that 1) The blossoms aren't out yet. 2) It's billed as a night event, but everything shuts down at 8:30 PM Friday and Saturday, and 5 PM on Sunday when the sun is still up. 3) The event was effectively washed out on Friday due to heavy rain, and the scheduled jazz bands were canceled. I had to work all day Saturday, and I'm posting this Sunday morning before the event starts up again for the last day.
I went up to the river at 3 PM when things were still being set up. I was one of the few people there looking around.
The cube 'o light. Basically just strings of Christmas lights. As far as I can tell, it was never turned on, on Friday. I did catch a little bit of it at 8:30 Saturday evening, after I got out of the school for the day. I'll post the photos later.
One of the table areas was being used to stage the paper lantern covers for the lights along the walking path.
One part of the festa includes a crafts contest, with 5-6 entries. People can vote for the display they like best, from the chainsaw art, to burnt bamboo art and one installation piece designed to look like a haunted Shinto shrine. (The haunted shrine was still being constructed when I was there.)
I do like the ad poster for Ponkan (tangerine) Curry. Another unexciting weekend.