Kites kites kites, did I mention the kites? My weekend part 2

So after the prison food and mushroom madness Sunday was more of a casual affair, it was on with the hat, shades and suncream and off to Yokaichi to watch the kite festival. Without doubt the Yokaichi kite festival is on the biggest things to hit our small area with bus, train and bikes full of people arriving to watch the displays, eat from the many many ohh so many hot dog stands and be prepared to run when one of the large kites goes rouge. (Oh and for some reason the computer keeps moving the pictures around, I daren't move anyhing in case they are deleated please bare with me and sorry!)

This is one of the large kites entered into the competition, the rules of which I actually don't know, but I'm guessing it involved flying the kite and attempting not to decapatate anyone (most kites achieved one of these things.. but I'm not saying which one)



Lots of people young and old arrived with their own kites, the sky was full of paintings, insects, birds and errr cows.

This is one of the many chain kites that littered the landscape.


This mans kites (on the right) had the same pattern as his Jimben


Click here for the full album from Picassa

This is the grand display, featuring what I think was possibly the biggest Kite in allllll of Japan around 200 tatami mates big, if that doesn't mean anything to you (and frankly if you don't live in Japan it probably mean nothing) our living room is six tatami mates if thats any indication of size.




This is the crash site of the giant kite, stuck in a the nearby bamboo forest. Oh and thats not the giant kite on the right, the actual giant kite was about 3 times as big.



This man is beginning to realise that when the shadow on the ground gets bigger and bigger you should really begin to run.

And finally click on the fish kite below to go the album. Whilst the video below is the awesome display that no one seemed to be watching except for us, you can hear how loud the wind is throughout.