Wednesday evening we took a train to the village of Kurama, just north of Kyoto, to see the Kurama Fire Festival.  It starts around sunset with the lighting of fire lanterns in front of some of the oldest hosues in the village.  After they are lit, the younger boys of the village carrying small fire torches up and down the main street, accompanied by their parents, and chanting “sai-rei, sai-ryo,” which means “festival, good festival.”  After this, the men of the village carry heavy 4 to 5-meter long torches through the streets in groups of two to three.  Around 8pm, a group of men carry a large mikoshi (portable shrine) to make the annual offering to the gods (unfortunately, we did not see the latter.)  It was raining and very crowded, but the fires stayed lit and it was very exciting.