Ome Taisai is held in my home town, Ome in May 2nd and 3rd every year. Ome Taisai is one of the biggest traditional festivals in Kanto region in Japan.
Let me tell you the history of Ome Taisai. Ome was a flourishing center of commercial activity long time ago. And people hold a festival for the guardian god of Ome. The festival was very famous and some people came there from afar and some articles about the festival were on some kind of newspaper at that time, but the details about the festival haven’t told us up to now.
This festival is composed of 12 local communities around Ome station called ‘cho’ such as Amagasecho, Honcho and Nakacho. Each communities have own floats and people who are belong to the community pull the float and walk closed roads.
You can enjoy seeing the floats but there are also many festival stalls called Yatai. You can eat Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, chocolate banana and so on. You can also play yo-yo, goldfish scooping, shooting and more.
The biggest event in Ome Taisai is a competition called “seriai”. You can see the picture that some floats gather in one place and play their own music each other. Each community have different music so if they couldn’t play their music in the competition, they have to leave from there. This seriai is full of energy so it is a lot of fun to watch it. So if you are interested in this festival, please come and have a fun!
