Himeji 姫路

This Monday was Culture Day, a national holiday in Japan, so I had the day off. A few weeks ago I had signed up to participate in a budo festival at the budokan in Himeji on Culture Day and invited some fellow ALTs to go with.

The day started off on the right foot when I woke up late and ran out of the door. I drove down to Himeji with some Sasayama ALTs and we only managed to get lost for 20 minutes. Thankfully we only missed the opening ceremony at the beginning and I was on time for a free lesson in wushu tai chi chaun.

Afterwards there was a demonstration of various martials arts.



Taekwondo team breaking some boards. It was set to a music track.





Karate. Those little kids were spot-on and kept up with the older kids.



Pretty sure this was shorinji kempo.



Taiko half-time show.



Naginata, taught to upper-class women back in the day, as far as I know.



Judo. Some sort of a stretching exercise...?



Kyudo, Japanese archery.



After the demonstrations we walked around the Himeji Castle grounds and took some pictures, had dinner and dessert, and then headed back home. It was quite a long day, but well spent.