Incredible Sightings at Matsumoto’s Daidogei Festival

There were reports of incredible sightings all across downtown Matsumoto this Sunday! On Sensaibashi Bridge witnesses reported the apparent reincarnation of Freddie Mercury. Others saw people flying through the air above the plaza in front of Shinshu Media Garden.

Down near the castle three men from Senegal were spotted importing their mesmerizing drum beats.

On Nakamachi Street a wildly-dressed woman was seen sporting a blown-up rubber glove on her head. Evidently not content with that simple exhibition she began wiggling it in the faces of the people around her, gulping down mouthfuls of air and blowing it out through her nose until her five-fingered balloon helmet finally burst, leaving her bug-eyed as she looked around at the laughing adults and the children who seemed not to know what to think.

In the park at the western end of Nawate-dori another crazily-clad human risked life and limb as he or she balanced precariously on a board that wobbled on a ball that rolled erratically back and forth atop a tower of stuff this person had in all likelihood hauled out of his or her garage that morning.

Later in that same park a group of people wearing body paint and little else put on a display of gestures and gyrations that at least one person in the crowd understood to be the story of how tumultuous, even torturous, spending your life tied to another person can be.

Back on the south side of the Metoba River a man with green and pink hair played every musical instrument at once while his buddy with the long black hair and the longer black coat blew bubbles out of a ten-foot pole.

Children tossed balls and spun plates on skinny sticks…

…while a tall white guy with a shaved head juggled bowling pins in front of the Kurassik-kan.

And as seen before, that massive sheep with the spindly legs roamed the streets, looking lazily down at the kids running circles around and under him. (Actually, her, it seemed.)

These were just some of the weird and wonderful sights filling the streets of downtown Matsumoto this past Sunday. If you were there, you know what I mean.

If you weren’t there, take heart in knowing that Freddie Mercury lives on. And he may just be back next year – along with who knows what else…