Hi Everyone,
Toka Ebisu Festival was held at Nishinomiya Shrine, which is part of a New Year's celebration in Japan. Located between Osaka and Kobe, it is a three-day festival where many businessmen/women will go and pray for a year of good business, symbolised by the Commerce God. Good fortune will involve fish, and many will take home prayer gifts and goods with fish on them.
The festival had many stores set up when we arrived. There were loads of local foods, gifts and games for everyone. The stores start from the station along to Nishinomiya Shrine. We took forever to make our way to Nishinomiya Shrine due to so many stores and we wanted to stop and have a look at what was on offer. Prices for each food item were very reasonable, a great way to start the new year. Takoyaki balls, beef sticks, yakitori sticks, fairy floss, red bean cakes etc are all very popular foods at the festival. There were also yakisoba, grilled corn and popcorn types of snacks we wanted to try but it was just too much. Our kids want to bring some gifts home but we told them to walk around first and decide and buy it on the way home. The most random thing was a ghost house, our kids refused to check it out. I don't blame them, Japanese ghost movies are next level so I don't know if this haunted house will be too scary for them.
The festival commences at 6 am each morning of the 3 days and in particular, there is a special ceremony where you want to be the first to get into the Shrine to get the best luck of the year. The crowd continues to increase by noon as many people from Osaka in particular arrive as it does take some time on the local train to get there. The atmosphere was really fun, we would never experienced this back home and we are glad the kids could understand another type of festival on this trip.
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