This Japanese folk song festival is sponsored by Ota city. Organized by my shamisen teacher, it included several local groups keeping alive the old folk songs and dances.
Just a small fall flower festival in Ota. Many fields were planted by local growers with cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias, merigolds. Click on the video to see the flowers in the wind.
The first Saturday of August is the Ashikaga Fireworks festival. It is 2 hrs of fireworks. It rained for the first 30 min and slowly cleared. We went up to the shrine (Orihime) on the hill overlooking the city and watched from there. The smoke was drifting toward us so sometimes it was difficult to see. I think this was not as good a show as in the past (probably due to the economic situation). After we went to get some yakitori (grilled chicken) and beer at a small but great place near the bridge. I took the train to and from to avoid the traffic.
