Candles at the Castle

Every year in winter, there is a festival on the castle grounds where many, many candles are arranged decoratively and lit in the evening. The scale is quite large; between all the different displays, there must be at least a few hundred candles. I haven't gone in the past, but this year I noticed a flyer at the mall and decided I wanted to see it. I was supposed to go with Tatsuya, but on the day he had picked out, he got off work too late and we missed the entry cutoff time. Fortunately for me, I already had plans to go again the next day with the girls, so I got to see it anyhow. He wasn't quite as lucky, but I took a bunch of pictures for him, so next time we meet up he'll get to see those. I thought I would share them with you, too.

At the entry to the park below the castle.

Candles, bamboo, and water.

Harimayabashi

The arrangement above was definitely not the largest or most elaborate, but I think it was probably my favorite one. It's meant to look like Harimayabashi, the famous (though very small) red bridge of Kochi.

A small village of paper lanterns, some shaped like buildings.

Hot air balloons?

A tall cylinder covered in butterflies.

The small candles around the cylinder were also decorated with butterflies.

Kochi Castle, seen from the park below.

Ryoma's head.

Fairly extensive bamboo structures covered in candles.

Bamboo split in half lengthwise, with four candles inside.

For free, you could borrow a paper lantern (LED, not candle lit) while you strolled about the grounds.

 Although it was a pretty cold night, I really enjoyed the candlelight and the beautiful displays. I wonder how many people and how long it took to light all the candles. This festival went on for about a week, every night between 5 pm and 9 pm. The candles were free to view, and you could pay 400 yen to go into the castle itself, which had been lit with what looked to be LED lights. Since there were a lot of people and it was so cold, none of us were all that interested in going inside. From the outside it looked like there was a rave or something going on in the castle, which was a much more entertaining idea than the reality of the situation.

So, though Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas to the same extent that the U.S. does, there are some pretty cool things to see and do in winter... even in Kochi.