A Nice Local Festival, Hachioji Ginkgo Festa Will Take Place This Weekend!

I introduced about "ginkgo nuts picking" on my another blog "Yuko's Japan Guide" previously on November 15th. Actually ginkgo is the City Tree of Hachioji because ginkgo trees line a 4 km (2.5 miles) long stretch on the roadside of Rd.20 (Koshu Kaudo) which is one of the oldest national road passing through Hachioji City, and the autumn view of it is one of the notable scenery in Hachioji. 

Thus, a local festival under the ginkgo trees on Rd.20 (Koshu-kaido) started 37 yeas ago and named "Hachioji Ichou Festa". Ichou is the Japanese word for Ginkgo. This year, it will take place this weekend, between November 19th and 20th. There will be various parades and performances, such as a classic car parade, a Samurai parade, traditional drum performances, and dance performances under the ginkgo trees during the festival. Also several shop areas for food stalls and local items will be set up between Takao station and Oiwake intersection. 

Besides the parades and performances, the festival has an interesting activity similar to stamp-collecting activity every year. Wooden passes called "Tsuko Tegata", which is the word for a kind of permission for travelers during Samurai era, are sold at the festival area and visitors can enjoy collecting branding of neighborhood areas' names along the Rd.20 (Koshu-kaido) as you can see in the lower center and left end photo. There are 12 checkpoints to provide the branding in the festival area. Perhaps it is like an old-days travel that people had to go through checkpoints to show their permission (Tsuko Tegata) on their way.

It would be fun to experience how people travel in old days, and the wooden pass would be a nice souvenir of Japan. In addition to it, when you completed to get all branding of the 12 neighborhood areas' names, you can also get some remembrance of the activity. 

Hope the weather will be nice and you can enjoy gorgeous golden color of ginkgo leaves at the festival!