Awa Odori 2010 -- In Kamojima

Other towns in Tokushima stage Awa Odori dances. This one is in Kamojima, my wife's home town. The dancing is confined to the main street leading south from the train station.

Awa Odori -- festive food

Awa Odori is one of the biggest summer festivals in Japan and, according to Alex Kerr, the most traditional of the big ones. As long as you stay away from the sajiki, the grandstand areas where dance teams perform under bright lights, you can still feel the majic that Wenceslas deMoraes described when he was (I think) the only foreigner living in Tokushima a century ago. The food is pretty traditional, too, if you ignore the cotton candy, candied apples, crepes, hot dogs, and Zima.

Raw ham

Something with cheese in the background.
Do you get the feeling this place (Sushiro) is big on non-traditional sushi?

Hotate mayo sushi

Scallops and cheese. Ugh!

Cold lunch

Room temperature takikomi gohan (rice cooked with bits of vegetables and chicken) and cold udon with fresh cherry tomatoes and grilled eggplant. Yum!

Soba appetizer

My daughter and I went to an udon and soba restaurant for lunch one day and got served this little basket of fried, salted soba (buckwheat) noodles as an appetizer. Pretty good, though it cried out for beer.

Salmon sushi with melted cheese on top

Cake sushi?

Just one of the dessert selections.

Corn sushi (gunkan style, with mayo)

Another cold lunch

Yamamomo

ヤマモモ aka 山桃 which means mountain peach, though the usual
English name is Japanese bayberry (Myrica rubra). In season in July.

Pop-Tarts Sushi

From the Christian Science Monitor