Kurihama Perry Festival

Nice, quiet, unpopulated street to walk down

Perhaps I've been reading waaay too many posts and pages about summer festivals.  Yesterday, I got them all mixed up.  My plan was to go to the Kurihama Perry Festival and wander up and down the street in search of cute pottery, listen to street music, and eat yummy food.  Well, what actually happened....

...I got to the Yokosuka-Chuo station at 1055 and hopped on the 1102 train to Keikyu Kurihama Station, arriving at 1110.  A nice quick trip.  So, I left the station and walked across the bus lot to the shopping area.  There was some sort of show going on right then, but I thought, "Wow!  It's so crowded.  I guess I'll walk down the road a bit to see what else there is and I'll come back here later." So...I walk down the road a bit.  And, there.  was.  nothing.  At the end of that little street NOTHING!  The map I got from the base website made it look like there would be tons of stuff to see.  I thought, well, maybe I just need to get out by the water and that's where I'll find the pottery and dishes for sale.  So, on I walked.  All the way to the water.

It was a really sunny day, but not too hot at that point.  I had a pleasant walk through Kurihama, past the turn to flower world, all the way to the water.  I got about a block from the road that runs along the water and I heard Michael Jackson blaring from nearby speakers.  I think, "Yay! I've found it!"  I make the turn to check out all the cool stuff and find me some lunch, because I'm starting to get a little hungry, only to see that the stalls didn't look quite right.  And, what kind of festival is this if they don't even block off the road??  Well, turns out, this part of the festival doesn't start until later in the evening.  And, the pottery I thought I was going to get to buy....wrong festival!  Oops!  Now, I'm irritated because I've messed up my shopping trip, and the daggon food is being cut up, so I can smell the yummy ingredients, but nothing was being sold yet!  Urgh!  On I walk...down the road, out to the beach and then back to the road.  What to do now?

 I'll just enjoy the beautiful day and walk around a bit more.  I found where the ceremony would be later that evening to commemorate Commodore Perry.  Warning:  history lesson, from the wiki history book:   Perry left Norfolk in 1852, on his way to Japan, trying to help establish an open trade with the Japanese (which was pretty much closed off to most of the world at that point).  It was in this harbor between Kurihama and Uraga, that Perry brought his ships and refused to turn around like the Japanese were telling him to do.  Instead, he pointed all his canons at Japan and told them he had a letter from the US president and wouldn't leave until they took the letter to the appropriate people.  They accepted the letter and Perry left, vowing to return for an answer to opening up for trade.  Two years later, he returned to find that the Japanese accepted almost all requests from President Fillmore.

Matthew C. Perry Memorial Park

After checking out the Memorial Park I headed over to the beach to get a shot of all the booths lined up along the road.

A shot of the harbor

From here, I decided to take a turn and walk along the river to Kurihama Station, a station I've never been to before.  It's a small station, but there were beautiful flowers out front.  I haven't a clue what kind of flower this is, but they were pretty and really big!  Bigger than my hand.

I hopped back on the train and headed home.  Thankfully, my wonderful husband came to the gate to pick me up.  The clouds were rolling in and it was starting to get hot and very muggy.

When I got home I looked on the Facebook to figure out where I went wrong.  Well, I was WAY early.  Turns out, there was a parade around 3 and then fireworks after the sun went down.  Oh well...there's always next year.