April 15

The next morning we woke up to this:


I'mmmm dreeeaaming of a whiiite spring festivaallll...

We spent the morning at the Hida Folk Village, which is a bunch of old houses from different parts of the Hida region that they moved to this area and preserved. I thought these were even more interesting than the palaces, and they smelled like yummy firewood smoke.


This house was a weaver's house, so they had some old looms in there:


Here's their family shrine:


This was a cool idea for an iron... put hot coals in the cup, and then push the flat part onto your clothes to smooth out the wrinkles.


This guy was in another of the houses, splitting wood into shingles in a traditional fashion (don't mind the chainsaw). He basically drove a wedge into a pretty thin plank of wood, and then wiggled it around to split the wood along its natural fibers.


It produces a pretty thin shingle, just like those that are used on the roof of that very house.


Also, I think this may have been the world's first rectal thermometer (J/k):


This house used a huge thatched roof instead of shingles, typical of whichever part of the Hida region it was from. I would think that high of a ceiling would make the place very difficult to keep warm.


And I think the question here is... what would I use it for? (read the sign)


Then back to the festival.


I think one of the coolest/most heart-warming things is to see the teenagers of the village participate. Usually teenagers don't like tradition, but it was really neat to see them put on the costumes and participate in the festival that has been going on for hundreds of years.


And now, I leave you with a dragon dance.