Greetings from the land of festivals. I thought the festival season was over. I was wrong. I guess in Mito I didn’t really pay attention to festivals because I was either on call or in Tokyo every weekend. Tokyo isn’t really a festival kind of place. But Nagoya – oh Nagoya – a festival is just what the doctor ordered. So yes, it was Nagoya Festival this weekend. Why? I don’t know. Saturday I was enjoyably lazy and had no idea that anything was going on because I didn’t get out until dinner time. Since I found out that the festival was going on though, I figured I check it out today.

But first, I had a real brunch this morning. Yum. My LA colleague’s brother owns an Aussie Pub here in Nagoya that does a Sunday brunch. I thought it was a good day for scrambled eggs on toast, with bacon, sausage, and home fries. Boy did that fill me up. I just wish they had decaf coffee because that would have really been quite the brekkie.

After watching the Japan F1 race on TV, I decided to check out the festival. On the way home from brunch I noticed a parade. It was a parade of floats – people carry floats in costumes. There was a marching band as well, and convertible cars with representatives from Nagoya’s sister cities (including Los Angeles, Sydney, and Mexico City). I didn’t see any Shriners but it gave me pause.

I wandered around the festival a little bit. It was, as I suspected, full of the usual suspects. Various performing acts that didn’t really make sense to me, lots of carnival games, and food stands. I took some pictures because it always makes a blog more interesting.

At the festival they had “fish on a stick” that I couldn’t get the interest in trying.

If the other was fish on a stick, what in the heck is THIS?!?

The standard food stalls were available …

With standard grease heavily in use.

And finally, the sky was kind of cool with Oasis 21 and the TV Tower.