Gotemba Summer Festival

So Gotemba had it's summer festival the other weekend. A few streets were blocked off from traffic, they had a bit of the local shrine parade and lots of your typical summer festival street food. It was the first time I've got a sense for how big Gotemba actually is! It really is remarkably quiet for such a big population town!
The festival itself was good. It had a bit of everything, there were Taiko drum competitions with some local school groups. Break dancing competitions. Salsa dancing competitions. Kid's mini-fishing, and a 'straw sandal race' where contestants could dress up & drag a 3rd team member for a 150m run. Very entertaining!