Tokyo Jidai festival takes place every year on November 3rd, a date famous for never having rain. Ever. It consists of a parade of historical characters through the streets of Asakusa to celebrate Bunka no Hi. Each costume is incredibly detailed and many participants represent a specific character from history.
When I went, one of the best places to stand was near the ‘finish line’ of the parade. For whatever reason, it was less crowded there. It also helped that I was just behind some children — not only were they shorter, but those in the parade tended to play to them.
All kinds of people can march (and perform) in the parade. The Tokyo geisha take part and I even saw one foreigner who wasn’t part of the American Embassy team, which was inspiring. As briefly mentioned earlier, many of them got into their role and ‘threatened’ the kids in front of me.
Here are a few of my best photographs and a chunk of video footage from the 2009 parade. The 2010 parade is this coming Wednesday from 12:30 to 4:00 around the Kaminarimon area and its backstreets, but you should arrive earlier to get a good view. It will take place if there’s only a small amount of rain, but will be cancelled in the event of heavy rain.
