Onoda Festival 小野田

This was really good fun and the weather was perfect.

The mochi* throwing ceremony at the end. I havent a clue why this is done, but it's very amusing and a lot of fun. Basically a ton of these small sweets are thrown at the crowd and the idea is to bag as many as you can. I couldnt believe how competive this was. Old ladies push and fight their way to the front and snatch any mochi you had out of your hands!! I managed to catch just one before giving up. At this festival there was over 800 kilos of mochi thrown into the crowd. This is a dangerous sport... trust me - if you get hit on the head by a flying mochi it hurts!! Its like throwing small rocks... Crazy Japanese people!!!

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* Mochi are small rice cake sweets - usually filled with bean paste. They are normally soft and doughy but taste really good.

さんねんねたろう

There is a great story behind this character. His name is Sannen Netarou. The story goes something like this:

Sannen Netarou is said to have slept for 3 years and many people considered him to be very lazy. When he awoke from his sleep he travelled to Nagato northern Japan to buy straw sandals for all the workers in the gold mines. On his return he gave the sandals to all the workers in exchange for their old shoes. From these old shoes Sannen Netarou extracted gold particles and suddenly became very rich. With his new found wealth Sannen Netarou invested in the local area and became a legendary character. He is now the official mascot of Sanyo Onoda City.

Special thanks to Koezuka Sensei for relaying the story to me.