This has been a weekend of mikoshi processions. Mikoshi are portable Shinto shrines, some of which are very heavy and elaborately decorated, sporting a gilt phoenix on top. Mikoshi, which are paraded through the streets of various neighborhoods during festivals, are said to house the spirit of a local deity during the procession. The local people who carry the mikoshi are dressed in traditional clothing that is modelled after costumes worn by firefighters from the Edo period (1600-1867).

Some mikoshi processions are attended by hundreds of people. This weekend we witnessed small processions. We had decided to go shopping in Naka-meguro, a neighborhood we recently discoverd while attending another summertime festival. We saw some men mounting what looked like a miniature mikoshi on a platform. They told us the procession would start at 1 p.m. We hung around to see it and discovered why the mikoshi was so small -- it was carried by a group of small children. They were just so cute. As I snapped a few photos one of the little boys helping to carry the shrine kept looking directly at me. He must have thought I was someone important -- the only westerner in the crowd taking photos. The other photographers were friends and family members, I'm sure. We also saw prepartions being made for a procession in Hiroo, the neighborhood at the bottom of our hill. Yet another procession made its way directly past our apt. building.