Maruyamacho Matsuri '08

Well into the late evening through both Saturday and Sunday night, groups of jubilant locals carried different Omikoshi through the streets of my neighbourhood. Chanting and whistling and ocassionally even shouting made it impossible to focus on anything other than this wonderful celebration. I am told that up until the Meiji period, the rooster that adorns the top of the mobile Shinto shrine was actually a phallic symbol, which actually does make sense as the matsuri is meant to be some kind of fertility festival. Western influence put paid to the phallas and now we have a different kind of cock! Maruyamacho is also meant to be the last shitamachi (old town) areas on Shibuya, and if the energy of these locals is anything to go by, things won't be changing too much around here real soon..