三寺まいり Santera Mairi (Three Temple Visit Festival)

On 15 January, 2015, I just visited a local Festival in Hida Furukawa which is 15 minutes by train from Takayama.  

This festival was originated 200 years old and was used as an event for creating opportunities for young men and women to meet.  Nowadays, it becomes a festival for young women to dress in kimono wishing for good relationships.  In order to experience the local culture, we made an early reservation for the kimono and arrived Hida Furukawa around 6:00p.m. to get dressed by the professional lady in the kimono rental place.  It was the first time for me to wear Kimono in winter and walking on the ice with the Japanese wooden clogs.  It was colder than we expected!!! However, the atmosphere of the festival makes us forget about the coldness.  The first thing that we have to do is to get 3 stamps of the three temples, then we have to put our candles on the side of the river and light them up.  This is the important moment: make a wish for good relationships!! While our eyes are shut to make the wishes, we could hear the sound of camera shutters on our side.  I realized this is the main spot for taking photos for the festival and there are lots of camera lovers waited at the river for taking pretty pictures of young lady in the festival.  Finally, I was able to receive some good ones from them.  

It was an interesting and unforgettable experience to attend Santera Mari Festival.  If you would like to see snow candles and lanterns in a traditional old down while dressing in kimono, we recommend you to join this festival. 

For more information, please refer to the below website:

http://www.hida-kankou.jp/kanko/foreign/en/things-to-do/festivals/