Festival Games – Nezujinja Matsuri

One of the main attractions of festivals in Japan are the stalls (yatai) providing food and games for adults and kids visiting the shrine and taking part in the festival. I love just walking around and looking at the stalls and the kids enjoying the games. One of the most common games is the shateki (sometimes shageki) or the popgun target range! For 300 yen if you are a child or 500 yen for adults (junior high school and up) you get a little pot of cork and a popgun. The targets (the prices) are set up on shelves or a rotating stand and you need to knock them over with a well placed shot. Naturally, the stall managers make sure that only the really cheap prices are easy to knock down. Bigger more expensive prices are virtually impossible to knock down. The most important thing to remember is to push the cork down completely into the barrel and to get the barrel as close to the target as possible, as the cork loses power quite rapidly. In the last two photos you can see a mother with her young daughter. The mother looks quite astonished after her daughter actually knocked over one of the prices! I think it was a small packet of chewing gum or candy.

There are many other games too, but they will make good subjects for future posts!