Yamayaki Festival and Kobe Beef

Janurary 26th - Jauary 27th



So after feeling the slight sting of not being in New Zealand, and living in Japan once more, we decided we needed a distraction and a chance to get away. This came in the form of the Yamayaki Festival up in Nara. So on Saturday 26th Jan, Todd and I took the bus bound for Osaka. From there (after eating a delicious Mexican lunch - a tradition for us when visiting Osaka) we made out way over to Nara on the train. Nara is a very pretty little place which has a huge Buddha and a couple of temples, surrounded by a park filled with wild deer. I say wild, the deer are actually very tame as they are always being fed by tourist so they are always coming up to you hoping for a snack! I'm sure on a previous post I have written about Nara as a place, so I'll get straight onto the festival. So this snippit is shamelessly stolen from a very useful site on the internet, and if you ever want to find out more about anything in my posts, or of places in Japan in general, then this site is the place to go: http://www.japan-guide.com/
 So, 'the Wakakusa Yamayaki is an annual festival during which the grass on the hillside of Nara's Mount Wakakusayama is set on fire. (Yamayaki literal translation is Mountain Fire!) The mountain is located at the eastern end of Nara Park, and when it is set alight it can be seen throughout the city'
There are a few stories around the origin of the festival. Some claim that it was because of a fight over boundries between the two big temples of Nara, Todaiji and Kofukuji, both claiming the mountain to be theirs. Another, simpler argument is that it started in order to scare away the wild boars on the mountain and to keep the mountain from becoming overgrown. Whatever the reason, this festival happens every year and is definitely a sight to see.

So we made it to the park with plenty of time to spare, and after giving the deer some sembei (when in Nara....) we made our way to a perfect viewing spot where we had a clear, uninterrupted view of the mountain. We knew it was a good place as after a while, we turned around to see that, without realising it, we were surrounded by old men who had been busy setting up their cameras on tripods facing the mountain. We were also lucky enough to spot a few of our friends from Tokushima, who had also made it up to see the festival. We managed to get a nice chat in before the fireworks started. The fireworks were, as expected, fantastic and were made even better by a little boy next to us who whooped and awed after every firework went off - hilarious! Obviously when they set off many fireworks at the same time, they were brilliant to watch, but it was also fun to see the novalty fireworks that the festival set off, including the ones shaped in a deer head! Brilliant. After the firework display we saw the torches that light the mountain appear and in no time at all the entire mountain was on fire! What a sight to see! Although it didn't last long, it was really enjoyable to watch and I'm glad I went to see it. Afterwards we took the train and made our way out of Nara, across Osaka, and down to Kobe so that we could spend our entire Sunday there.

Arrived at Nara

Deer King!

Waiting for the event to kick off

Fireworks

Nara deer fireworks!

Just a mountain on fire...

So I confess, although I haven't been to Kobe before, I hadn't actually spent much time and thought into what we were going to do when we were there. Our main purpose and focus of the day was to get ourselves some Kobe beef. Infact, including the Mexican we had the day before, I think we can safely say that this weekend was more food focused than anything else, maybe Yamayaki was just an excuse to get us to the food places we wanted. So there are only two things I want to/need to mention about our Kobe day. 
1. Have you ever heard of Kobe beef?? Well we had, and we were extremely intrigued by it. This was our main reason for being in Kobe - we were going to get us some Kobe beef. We had heard it was the most succulent steak we would ever try - it practically melts in you mouth! And we were not disappointed. We got to lunch early (it wasn't even 11:30) but the restaurant was already pretty full, and by the time we left an hour later there was a sizable queue outside the door (a positive sign I think!) We headed up and got sat at a table with a grill infront of us. We both ordered the Kobe beef (of course!) and a few minutes later, a chef came out with our steaks and started cooking them there, right in front of us! Needless to say my mouth was watering whilst I watched this meat cook and I couldn't wait to try it. Luckily the meal also came with many sides so I got to focus my attention on that whilst I was waiting for the meat to cook. The lunch came with salad, rice, soup, pickles and the chef fried us some garlic chips, bean sprouts and cabbage. Everything was really delicious but it was just a distraction and paled in comparison when we finally got our cubes of meat. Oh. My. Word. I cannot say anything that will give the full impression of just how delicious this meat was. All I can say is get yourself to Kobe, and get yourself some Kobe beef!!

Eating the extras, waiting on the beef

ooooh... look at it!

Delicious!

2. Finally, to top off our weekend food tour, we headed into China town to look around for a while. We were actually very shocked to see that stalls and vendors next to each other would sell the exact same Chinese snacks and food. We were wondering how they all managed to stay in business but then decided we weren't worried about it too much. I decided to help along one stall and bought myself a delicious duck pancake filled with the standard duck, cucumber, spring onions and smothered with plum sauce. It was wonderful but the best part of it was that Todd had never tried one before so I got to introduce him to the wonderful world of duck pancakes! Delicious. It was with a heavy heart (and a very full belly) that we left Kobe that night and in the next year I'm sure we will make the trip to indulge once again in all the tastiness that Kobe has to offer - maybe this time we'll actually see some sights Kobe has to offer too!