Osaka International Beer Festival

On a recent trip to Osaka, we came across the Osaka International Beer festival. Coming from San Diego we are used to spending weekends sipping on insanely delicious brews, while rubbing shoulders with some of San Diego's finest hippsters and bros.

Not surprisingly, the beerfest in Osaka was just a little different than we were expecting. Thankfylly, with about 20 beers on tap, at 500 yen a pour, the festival was certainly a chance to try some yummy brews. Many of the breweries were local, Japanese beer. There were also a few international breweries, including a few from the states!

Osaka fashion is a bit more fierce than in Kyoto! 

People enjoying traditional accordion music...by Japanese ladies....

This kiddo kept running around and dropping down on the ground, and into a skydiver pose.

geisha comb festival

A popular event amongst geisha-groupies is the annual comb festival. Held once a year, this festival celebrates the life and retirement of hair combs. "Lame," you may be thinking to yourself, and to an extent it was, but if you are unfamiliar with the long history of geisha and maiko, or have never seen the beauty of a geisha/maiko in person this is a highly recommended event.

The first thing we asked ourselves when we heard about the festival was why the hell would they need to have a burial (as it was called to us) for combs. Thankfully H-san explained to us, that any object a Japanese person possess for many, many years will be assumed to have a soul. This means that when it breaks or is too old to use, a burial ceremony is required to release the spirit.

During this festival, the actual ceremony is closed to the public, but the post-festivity parade is for everyone. You can also drop off your used or broken combs to the temple ahead of time and they will be a part of the ceremony as well.

The festival is held at Yasui Konpiragu Shrine at 1:00pm, at the end of September. The poor maiko/geisha were unbelievably hot in their silk gowns.

There is also a famous wishing stone at the shrine where people make wishes to end or start a relationship.

Bad luck omen slips being offered back to the temple. If you get a bad luck omen, this is how you keep it from coming true. 

Relationship stone, decorated with people's requests and names. Crawling through the stone is said to start or stop a relationship (depending on which way you go through). 

Anxious girls waiting to walk through the explanation area and on to the parade.

Explaination/Exhibit area. Each period walked through and then proceeded onto the parade. As you can see this is a insanely popular event, held at a tiny shrine. Go early for good viewing, or just plan to see them at the parade. 

Typhoon and Nanzen Ji temple

Right after the recent typhoon, we wanted to check out the Kamogawa and then take a little bike ride around the east side of Kyoto.

The river was significantly different than what we usually see.

Here is a picture of the river up until this storm:

Here is a picture the day after the storm:

It took over a week from the river to calm back down and now looks much less lush and welcoming.

After seeing the river, we made our way over to the Nanzen Ji temple. This beautiful temple is at the base of the east mountains protecting Kyoto. The storm had left the temple a mess, with new rivers all over the place. It was sad to see such a beautiful place a mess, but it gave it a wonderful earthy smell and atmosphere and thankfully none of the buildings were damaged.

We also saw that there is a great temple-style restaurant here. It looks beautiful, but we didn't try it out.

Here are a few photos of the temple and grounds:

The sitting area of the signature and good luck stick person. It almost looked as though the person lived in the building. In addition to selling good luck sticks, the person also has a face-mask-making hobby. 

Ironically, the aqueduct running through Nanzen-ji was almost empty.