Imonikai

 This is in a park downtown. It is a kokeshi. Usually they are made of wood and are no more than a foot high. Most of them are made by craftsmen on lathes and then painted with a face and a kimono. They are very popular and many people decorate their homes with them.

 This is Nanakita Park on a holiday. At this time of year groups, most often college friends but also others, go to a park or along a river and have a party. It is called imonikai, imo means potato, ni means boil, and kai means party. They start a fire and boil a big pot of potatoes, meat and vegetables. Often this is accompanied by meat grilled over the same fire. Along with this, the party goers will consume a large amount of beer, sake or other alcohol. There will be casual sports and music, too.

 It smelled so good that I was tempted to go over and start taking to people in the hopes that someone would invite me to join them. Notice that in both of these pictures there are baby carriages. It is quite common for the young families to bring the children with them.

 At the other end of the park, the flowers were still blooming.

 This is an area that they dug up to repair the underground pipes. They have rebuilt the foundation around the outside of the building and have planted new trees.

As I started for home, I found a group of students using the shade from a bridge to shelter their imonikai.