Gifu University Festival

I was looking back through my older posts when I realised that I never wrote about one of the most important events of Gifu University – the annual Gidaisai. It was held on the first weekend of November and it was a massive undertaking for everyone. It involved the entire university and for the duration of two days, the campus ground was transformed into a veritable playground complete with food and game stalls, band performances, comedy routines, and interactive activities. There were so many things to eat and drink and much more things to do; some of the food you can expect include yakisoba, senbei, burgers, takoyaki, chocolate bananas and so on. During the festival, you can dress up in a traditional kimono, listen to an electron orchestra, play ball games and listen to (some very bad) bands. It was so much fun and it gave a few bonus days off from class as preparations were finished. Heh heh.

This festival is preceded by the Gifu University Float Parade held the day before the start of the festival. It isn’t really such a major affair because not many clubs join in building the floats. Last year only five clubs entered, one of them being the Ryuugakusei Love Club. We made a giant red Sarubobo (some sort of monkey) but unfortunately, we didn’t win best in parade. That went to the veterinarian science students…again! I think that makes it three years running for them. Anyway,  the parade takes place near Gifu Station and it makes it way around an entire block. It takes about one and a half hours to complete the route and by the end of it, everyone is very tired of carrying the heavy float. And hoarse from shouting chants the entire time! By the way, the float gets destroyed at the end of Gidaisai. Everyone who helped make it gets to participate in the fun of completely trashing it to bits. Allows you vent out some angry frustration for not winning first prize. Our monkey only won the third prize of 10,000 yen which was used to buy booze for the party held later that night. Yes, we students really know what to spend our money on!

I definitely recommend trying on the kimono at the school festival though; it only costs 500 yen to rent for the day and is a very Japanese experience. However the only people walking around the festival were silly international students like me. I felt a bit awkward at first because everyone was staring and thinking what these weird students were doing but I thought I might never get another opportunity to wear a kimono before I went home. I’ve worn a yukata before but it is slightly different and didn’t have as many layers. Besides, the kimonos were so pretty and you get to mix and match your belt. I thought everyone was looking good in them! Too bad the guys only got a choice of black or blue male kimonos. They couldn’t be as pretty as the girls!