It’s coming up to Valentines Day, so what better reason for a lakeside country town to hold a cheesy romantic festival?
That’s right, at Miyagase, in Kanagawa Prefecture, it was the Valentine Week festival. This was an event stumbled upon after a hike to nearby Tanzawa-san – we’d descended the mountain, it was getting dark, and were searching for the bus stop to get back to the Tokyo, when we stumbled upon a surreal lake-side event.
From a distance, there were red fairy lights and music. As we got closer, the fairy lights turned into the shape of hearts. As we arrived, we found families walking around a fair ground watching a clown act, food stalls selling carnival food, and twinkling lights trying to create an inner romantic glow. Out on a lakeside field was a the lantern-outlined shape of a 100 metre big heart.
There was only 20 minutes or so hanging around here before the bus was scheduled to leave. I think that was enough for me. What a surreal experience!
Here’s the location of the festival. The Google aerial photo must have been taken during the festival in a previous year – because you can make out the shape of the heart on the field!
