Nagasaki City's Lantern Festival

Happy New Year, China!

Every February Nagasaki hosts the Lantern Festival. The matsuri is tied to the Chinese New Year which is currently being celebrated by our neighbors to the West. Nagasaki history boasts close ties to China, and the city itself is said to have one of the biggest China Towns in all of Japan. Lucky me. I live right next door. This means I am a hop, skip and jump away from all of the lanterns -- and action.

Here are the lanterns.

And here is some of the action.

I haven't seen the Dragon Dance, nor the Lion Dance, which I want to, but there are performances all this weekend and next. Also, there's a pretty radical shrine set up with lots of pigs heads and such that I hope to get a photo of. I'll post it when I do.