Tokoname - Cats and Pots

By chance, we end up in Tokoname, a beautiful pottery town located on the Ise Bay, south of Nagoya. We stay there for two nights. As we stroll through the town, we stumble upon a Haru Matsuri (Tokoname no Dashi Matsuri) - a spring festival where various decorated floats (representing each district of the town) are pulled through the city with thick ropes. The participants shout loudly: 'Sera!'. There are also a few musicians sitting on the floats, playing flutes or drums. The sounds are very rustic, with no harmony recognizable to our European ears. Sometimes the floats are stopped: families, restaurants, or shops that financially support them are thanked with a song. The stopping looks very funny, people quickly run around the float and shout, the float is wildly turned 90°. Anyone can participate, even children and families. At the end, sweets or drinks are distributed. Although we were only watching, we also get ice cream.

The town evokes nostalgic feelings... Everything looks so romantic with its many small lanes. Old ceramic bowls or pipes were used as flooring or walls for these. And then there's the thing with the cats. You can find cat figurines in various forms on many corners. Salia gets to design a lucky cat herself in a small shop. This break is very good for all of us. Next door, there's a restaurant with handmade soba noodles. Of course, we stuff ourselves there.

In the evening, we go out again. And it's worth it: the floats are on the move again, but this time they are decorated with glowing lanterns. We join in again and Salia really wants to pull the rope once. So we do. It's really fun and Salia is beaming from ear to ear.