Gion Matsuri 祇園祭り Yoi-yama 2006 part 1

Yes, Gion matsuri had come and gone. It was always fun to go walking in the night, squashed in the crowd of people, admiring the beautiful 'hokos' all lighted up with dozens of lanterns. This post is about the 'hokos' or floats. The next will be about the various stalls, performances and lantern pictures. The last will be about the RAINY parade day.



Nearly everyone was wearing the yukata which is the summer kimono. I didn't though, it was kinda hard to cycle in it!



This time I get to use my canon to shoot the night shots. Compared to my old faithful, this one takes much better night shots - well, it should!





This is the famous Fune Boko - one of my favourite 'hoko'. If you had seen my last posting of Gion matsuri, you would have seen it in the pictures I had taken of the parade. Now, the parade was interesting but that is another story.



This is the Ayagasa Boko.



This is one of the 'hoko' without the lanterns in front.



This kid was on top of the Fune Boko. You can go up and into the hoko but for a price. I did once, and I had no idea which hoko I went into. But it was beautiful and everything was so intricate. The tapestries were amazing.



The full view of Shijo street which was closed to traffic to accomodate the throng of people wishing to see the hokos.