Tondo Festival at Kintai Bridge

January 14 -- this is the day of the Tondo Festival at the Kintai Bridge in Iwakuni, which signifies the end of the new year's celebrations. All over Japan, communities prepare a huge bonfire for burning the new year’s lucky charms, such as the Shimenawa and Hamaya, to send off the god of the new year. Most decorations are made of fresh ingredients, but even those that are artificial, are never saved from year to year. We've heard that these beautiful decorations (see earlier posts for photos) are too sacred to just be thrown in the garbage.






So we've brought ours from our front door, and Stan stands in line to give it to the man who will toss it onto the pile. It looks like a lot of garbage, but all of these are sacred decorations -- some in bags.