Hisami Scarecrow Festival

Fall is officially here in Sasebo and the weather is absolutely beautiful!  Today I went with a few friends to Hisami (a small town about 45 minutes away) to the annual scarecrow festival. Every year the locals decorate scarecrows and line the street with their creations. It is quite an unusual  sight!  Some of them were a little odd, and some of them we had no idea what they were because of course the signs are in Japanese. But we had a great afternoon looking at all the fun scarecrows and enjoying the amazing countryside. Here are some pictures of my favorite scarecrows.

This is for my honey... it's a Harry Potter scarecrow!

The scarecrows lining the streets.

Scarecrow holding a fish...

Scarecrow with fish in a basket...

Playing on the bridge...

Playing "Ring Around the Rosey"

I think this is some sort of sports team, maybe soccer?

Okay, this by far was the funniest scarecrow, and the little kids standing by it and playing in the water, made it even better!

Just too funny!

Who knows??

The scarecrows were fun to look at but the most amazing part was the amazing rice fields.  The fields are turning yellow, because the rice is almost ready to be harvested.  The fields were breath-taking.

The rice in full bloom

Rice fields of Hisami

I just loved the sight of the rice fields, red flowers, and stream.

Just amazing!

Of course I had to take some pictures of the bright and beautiful wild flowers.  They just added to the scenery to make it even more spectacular! I don't think I'll ever get used to the beautiful wildflowers of Japan!

After the festival, my friend took us to a fun udon (fat noodle) place where you could watch them make the noodles.  It was yummy and exciting to watch!

The noodles on the conveyer belt

Dishing out the udon noodles

Yum!!