Many Obon festivals take place in the Tokyo area during the months of July and August, but this week is officially Obon week. It's one of the most important holidays in Japan. Obon is roughly translated as All Souls Day -- it's a time when the Japanese honor their ancestors. Most take vacation during this week and travel to their home town. All this means that most restaurants and small shops have been closed all week, the streets are clogged with traffic leaving town but empty into town and many areas in the city are eerily quiet. Brad and I went shopping today in Shinjuku, one of the busiest shopping districts in Tokyo (and probably in the world, for that matter). Since it was a Saturday morning we were wondering what kind of crowds we would see on the trains and in the stores. Well, for Tokyo it was light, but I would not say it was deserted by any means. Most of the big stores were open, but we even encountered one large shopping center that was entirely closed. The Yamanote train line is usually sardine city on a normal Saturday morning, but we found breathing room and an empty seat or two.

I recently found out the story behind the festival we went to in Naka Meguro on Aug. 4. It is called Awa Odori which roughly means dance of the fools. I found a very good description of the fesitval on this website. We hear there will be an Awa Odori held in Shimokitazawa soon. Hope we can find out when and check it out. Shimokitazawa is known to be a bohemian section of town, so I imagine they'd put on a pretty good show.