Tamba Sasayma Wild Boar Festival

Shortly after arriving in Miki, we heard about the annual Tamba Sasayama wild boar festival. Sasayama is in central Hyogo, slightly more rural than Miki, and it is famous for its botan nabe (wild boar hot pot). The festival is a celebration of wild boar cuisine and the boar itself.

The main event is a race between three boar piglets that is held three times during the event. After seeing pictures online, we were a little surprised when we saw how short the "race track" was. Some other English teachers said they arrived one minute after the first race and had already missed it!

Eating delicious boar burgers

We went and tried some boar cuisine including the botan nabe, which seemed very healthy and had an excellent miso broth. We also enjoyed the original "tambaga" or wild boar Tamba burger. One of the main events was a boar roast, which sold out before we could buy any. We did however get over to the barbecue, where the roaster was grilling up bones so people could taste the scraps of meat that stuck to them. I struck up a conversation with the roaster, and he gave me some choice bones. He was going to discard the head as inedible, but a couple of fellow English teachers insisted he try grilling it. The end result appears like a giant drumstick but is really just a skull with a bit of meat to pick off.

We looked for seats around 30 minutes before the race. We found some with a good view, but they were ground seats, which meant we battled the cold and our feet falling asleep while we waited. I'll let the video speak for itself, but once the race actually started, it was a fun and fast show!

On the way home, we decided to go to the Kobe Sanda Premium Outlets, which was more or less on the way home. Shortly after getting off at Sanda Station, I realized, for the first time ever, that I had left my bag on the train! At first, I had no idea where it was, but then I was slightly relieved when I remembered leaving it on the overhead rack on the train. In most countries, this would mean a lost bag plus the camera and other contents that were inside. But this is rarely the case in Japan. I told the JR Sanda Station staff, and within four or five stops of where I got off, the staff from another station figured out where it was an got it off the train. I was so thankful!

The outlet mall was fun and a great way to finish an amazing day. It was a little tiring and expensive getting out to the country by train and bus, but we're planning to get a car in the near future, making trips like this one easier and cheaper.

The 2011 Miki Hardware Festival

Miki is really only famous for one thing: tool production. So the Miki Hardware Festival is the biggest event of the year and supposedly draws thousands from around the prefecture. Since moving here, I have been on the lookout for a Japanese hatchet. Several years ago, outdoor brand Snowpeak started carrying some, and I was intrigued by how different such a common outdoor tool could be. Recently, a very cool company, Best Made Co., got on board the Japanese Hatchet train and also started carrying a handsome Japanese hunting knife. I was hoping the tool festival would be my chance to find a blade that I could carry forever.

I was disappointed. While there were countless tents selling tools, none of them seemed premium. There was in fact only one tent selling premium hunting knives, but they didn’t really have any hatchets. The wares at every other tent were not so different from what I can get at the local hardware store.

In general, the festival had a fun, blue collar feel. We had a good time, ate some good food and bought some local vegetables. I still have my spending money, so maybe I’ll have to save a little longer for the Snow Peak or Best Made Co. hatchet. I love the idea of buying a quality tool that my kids might use some day.

Traditional blacksmithing demonstration

Miki Aki Matsuri

Miki’s Aki Matsuri, or fall festival, took place on Oct 8 and Oct 9. Festivities included a street filled with stands selling festival food, which not unlike a state fair back home, consisted of mostly fried items and desserts. Although the fried items are much less outlandish than what has become the norm in Oklahoma and Texas.

The main event at most fall festivals across Japan is carrying mikoshi, or portable shrines, through the city. In Miki, a number of different neighborhoods all carried their own mikoshi to the main shrine in the city. The shrines literally weigh thousands of pounds. Carrying them is a chore for the dozens of men that join in, and this is doubly so in Miki where a gigantic staircase stands between the road and the main shrine. This year represented the 900-year anniversary since the original main shrine was built. Coming from the United States, it’s hard to imagine a historical site that continues to be used for the same purpose 900 years after its inception!