Toyohashi Gion Matsuri

On July 15, was a nice summer festival (Gion Matsuri) at a nearby city of Toyohashi.  Toyohashi is about 1hr by train from Nagoya.  I went there primarily to see the fireworks but I spent the whole day.

It was my first time taking a train in Japan by myself so it was quite exciting.

 There are several local train companies near Nagoya.

 Some of the trains look pretty old:

 My train arrives:

 A bridge along the way:

 And rice fields:

 Train station bicycle parking in some small town along the way:

 Farmers taking care of rice:

 Nice scenery:

 Can see the ocean:

 Some statue on top of a hill:

 Shinkansen:

Instead of going directly to Toyohashi, I went to the station right after it (Futagawa) to visit a local zoo.  Arriving in Futagawa:

 Nice houses; quiet town:

 The train station - modern building:

 Like most of Japan, there are plenty of hills:

 Old wooden houses:

 Flowers:

 First, I started walking towards this shrine, taking smaller streets to see the neighbourhood:

 View of the zoo:

 Heading to the top of that hill:

Entrance to the hill:

 Some statue by the entrance to the shrine:

 The shrine grounds (Iwaya Kannon):

 Shrine building:

 Everything is built up on this hill:

 Stairs up to the top of the hill:

 Lots of stairs...

 At the top is an observation building where you can see a nice view of the city:

 Here you can see the top of the shrine hill with the statue at the top.  I wasn't able to get to the statue - I am not sure whether that is possible:

 Caught a shinkansen riding through - they are so long!  This is the line to Tokyo.

 Back to the shrine:

 Exiting the hill area:

 I decided to go into this supermarket and buy a hat - it was like 36C and way too hot without a hat.

 I bought this (didn't have much choice...):

 The statue at the top of the shrine's hill:

 Interesting building...

 Walking back to the station... I stopped at this udon place to eat lunch:

 I had some fish rice bowl and udon:

 From the train station, it was easy to find the zoo...

 There were many markers...

 All along the road...

Finally, the zoo entrance:

 The zoo turned out to be free because of the festival:

 These glass buildings were the botanical garden:

 Only in Japan... somebody goes to the zoo dressed like this :)

 The main street at the zoo:

 Garden:

 Amusement park:

 Since it was the city festival, there were many festival stalls available:

 The zoo also had dinosaurs:

 GETS!

 A steam locomotive on display:

 An asian bear:

 Interesting trees:

 A lake:

 with a swan:

 Another asian bear:

 The animals were all rather hot and sad looking... keeping in shade:

 large bear:

 Elephant:

 Beans:

 Monkeys:

 Penquins:

 Polar bear:

 Otters:

 Some savanna animals:

 Amusement park train:

 View from top of an observation tower at the zoo:

 Scare crows at the zoo?

 Some kids play:

 Dinosaurs:

 Fish stones:

 Interesting playground:

 Dragonfly:

 Some pond lilies:

 The Monet garden (supposed to be like his famous painting):

 The observation tower building:

 Flower garden:

I went inside the greenhouse buildings:

 Even here, you could spot dinosaurs:

 Pineapple plant:

 From the zoo, I went to the old castle grounds where the fireworks were supposed to be held.

 Could already see people in Yukata:

 Not sure about the space shuttle...

 Trams:

 Pretty yukata:

 Interesting statue:

 The river by which the fireworks were happening:

 Right next to the old castle grounds:

 A remaining guard building:

 Festival food stalls:

 Some fruit on trees:

 Indiana Jones anyone?

 People are starting to gather for the fireworks:

 Getting food:

 Tasty squid:

 Test runs:

 Going home earlier to beat the rush... fireworks still continuing...

Very nice fireworks!  But very tiring and hot day.