I went to this festival with my former student, Keiko. Keiko has started graduate school so we no longer meet for class, but I was so happy she invited me to go to the festival with her! When I say giant kite, I mean seriously giant. The biggest kite was the size of 128 tatami mats. Why the J's use a tatami mat as a measurement, I will never know, but a single tatami mat is 90 cm x 180 cm and it weighed 950 kg! We're talking over 2000 pounds for all you Americans! Here is Keiko and I in front of the giant kite.
The kites were all on display for picture taking and viewing and while we waited for the wind to pick up. Keiko and I had some yummy food while we waited and enjoyed the sunshine. It was a beautiful day. The wind wasn't too strong so only the smaller kites made it in to the air. They were still the biggest kites I have ever seen!
This is as far as the giant kite ever made it-
Keiko was worried the whole time that I wasn't enjoying myself simply because I didn't see the big kite fly, but it was still amazing. It took 80 people to try and fly the biggest kite. Take a look at the rope they are pulling!
The team of 80 people was orchestrated by team leaders with red and white flags. Red means wait. White means ready to go. Surprisingly, to get the kites in the air, they simply lifted the front edge and waited for the wind to catch it, then they would push up the next section and finally push the edge of the kite up. It was pretty simple for the smaller kites. The hardest part was keeping all of the ropes straight and untangled!
I also loved the carp fish wind socks that were hanging all across the fair grounds. They used these to measure the wind speed and said when the fish were parallel to the ground, it would be time to fly!
We weren't quite ready yet at this time of the day. A beautiful way to spend a Tuesday afternoon!
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