Unfortunately all the good festivals with the fireworks seem to happen in the summer, when it is way too hot to come to Tokyo. But there is one festival that happens in the fall at least that lets you enjoy everything about the summer festivals, except maybe for the fireworks. You get the outdoor food stalls, people lining up for some religious reasons, mysterious trinkets of great significance (in this case a bamboo rake called a 熊手) and goldfish scooping. It is called Tori-no-ichi (酉の市) and it means literally “bird market”, which is to celebrate one of the zodiac signs. It is at all the shrines around Tokyo, and especially big at Asakusa. But that was too far so we went to Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku.
The goldfish scooping game (金魚掬い) deserves some explanation because it is so awesome. You pay maybe Y300 for a plastic handle with a paper scoop. You try to scoop as many goldfish into your bowl as you can with the paper scoop before it gets too soggy from the water and breaks. You can keep the goldfish after, but what are you going to do with goldfish if you kept them, so you just give them back.
And as for the rake, I asked some people about it and it is just like any normal rake you use for raking up and collecting leaves. Except it is for raking and collecting happiness. I’m sure google would provide a better explanation but I prefer not to know any more than that.
