浅草の年末の祭りと言えば鷲（おおとり）神社の「酉の市」です。その盛んな様子は樋口一葉の「たけくらべ」の中でも描かれているほど全国的に有名です。浅草の商売人が商売繁盛を祈念し熊手を買うのです。そんな酉の市、今年は11月2日、14日、26日に行われます。管理人は14日の酉の市に行ってきました。
A vary famous festival in Asakusa which is held at the end of the year is Tori-no-ichi in Otori Shrine. This festival is so famous that Ichiyo Higuchi, a famous female author has viewed how great this festival is in her famous novel “Takekurabe”. Merchants in Asakusa come to this festival to buy Kumade (rakes) to wish good business. This Tori-no-ichi festival is held on Nov 2nd / 14th / 26th this year and I visited this festival on 14th.
鷲神社の前は見渡す限りの屋台！たくさんの人！コロナで苦しんでいる世界ですが、ここは別世界です！
Full of food stalls around Otori Shrine! So many people! World is suffering from COVID 19, but here is a different world.
やがて鷲神社へ。神社からのはがきが入場に必要なはずですが実際には不要で、健康チェックシートのみ提出して入場。ことしも見渡す限りの熊手を売っていました！
Finally arrived at Otori Shrine. We heard a letter from this shrine is required to enter, but actually it was not necessary, only required to submit “health check sheet”. This year we could see thousands of Kumade (rakes)!
私たちも今年初めてこのかわいい熊手を買いました。来年はコロナも収まりより多くのお客様をお迎えできますように！
This year we bought this cute Kumade for the first time! We hope next year COVID 19 will be constrained and we can welcome more travellers!
このあと26日にも酉の市の三の酉が開かれます。皆さんぜひお越しください！
You can enjoy third Tori-no-ichi Festival on Nov 26th, please enjoy this festival!
おまけ：東京は今が紅葉のピークです。昨日神宮外苑で撮影したイチョウの写真をアップします。来年はより多くの外国人観光客が日本の誇る紅葉を楽しめますように…
Addition : Autumn leaves are very beautiful in Tokyo now. Hereby we upload Ginkgo tree photo which is in Jingu Gaien and was taken yesterday. We hope next year more foreign travelers can see famous beautiful autumn leaves in Japan…
