Last weekend during March 17-18, 2007 (Year of the Boar), I saw the Sagicho Festival in Omi-Hachiman, Shiga. It was great! I was very impressed by the colorful Sagicho floats made of edible materials like soybeans, small fish, aoi-nori, and many other ingredients. They were all fantastic works of art.
It was very windy and cold on both days, and Himure Hachimangu (near Hachiman-bori Canal) was very dusty. But it was also very sunny and a great weekend to take pictures. It seems to be a very local festival, which means there are not so many tourists. There were very few foreigners.
On Sun. night, it was very cold waiting until 8 pm when they started to burn the floats. The whole area in front of the shrine (and Taneya), which is usually a parking lot, was the main festival site. If you have never seen this festival, I highly recommend it. There’s another fire festival in Hachiman next month as well.
Pictures taken on Sat.:
http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=150
Pictures taken on Sun:
http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=530
YouTube videos: