jizobon & gangara fire festival

Yesterday was Jizobon, where people give thanks to Ojizoson, who watches over the children.

I noticed all the tiny shrines around our shopping arcade decorated with chochin (paper lanterns) and offerings. There were also some priests sitting in front of some of the shrines saying prayers.

This was my first time seeing this and I had to look online to figure what it was. (learned something new!)

Satoshi said that when he was a child, Jizobon was celebrated at the furoya-san (public bath), dunno if they have tiny shrines, next door to MIL's. When I asked him what they did, he said they just played games and ate candy...

Last night was also the Gangara Fire Festival, which I've written about before, here.

Summer seems to be coming to a close with all these events, but the weather dude says that the heat & humidity will continue to linger awhile.