And now, the end is near

That's it, I'm not a CIR any more. My last act was to show a group of ALTs around Shiogama's Minato Matsuri, or Port Festival, and give them a VIP seat to all the cool stuff that went on in connection with it. As of 5:15 p.m. today, I am no longer an employee of Shiogama City. But the day was great fun, and a fine way to sign off for the two years I've spent here. Today's post is necessarily a little picture-heavy, for which I apologise, but there's some interesting stuff, so take a look.

Basically what happens with the matsuri is that the Omikoshi (portable shrines holding the tutelary deity of the main Shrine) are taken through the streets out onto boats and then sailed around the Shiogama-Shichigahama-Matsushima area, with a view to praying for good catches, something of a necessity in what is essentially still a fishing town. The city thought that it would be a good idea to get some foreign visitors to see this, and that's where I came in, showing 13 or so of my fellow ALTs around the place and riding the boats along with them. I think everyone had a good time and got a lot out of it - it amounted to a real ringside seat to a bit of authentic Japanese culcha...

Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking.