In lieu of typhoons

There's a typhoon (no. 15) roaring through Japan today, so school was cancelled today. Another typhoon was the last thing Wakayama-ken needed, as people are still recovering from the flood damage and landslides that the last one brought.

But on a brighter note, because I don't have work today, I decided to post some pictures of my wife's hometown summer festival from early last month.
Festivals are a big part of summer life in Japan, and a lot of people show up as you can see. I guess the closest thing I can compare it to in the US is a county fair without the rides and farm animal competitions.
But there's a whole lot of food. Above is the kakigori (shaved ice) guy. I'm still having trouble formatting the blog entries, so the flavors are down below...

This is the grilled squid stall. I like a lot of Japanese seafood, but I can't say I'm a fan of squid yet.
These are the flavors for the kakigori: sour, strawberry, melon, grape, and lemon (from left to right). I had melon, but I wish I had gotten something more sour. This stall's owners are also big Doraemon fans, apparently.
This is ichigo-ame (candied strawberries). They're just like candied apples, but...they're strawberries. I wasn't so sure about eating hot strawberries, but these were actually great.

There was also a big fireworks show that night that lasted for an hour. Maybe it's because of Japan's proximity to China, but the fireworks were some of the best I've seen. I told my wife this, and she just laughed like they were nothing, but they really blew my hometown's July 4th fireworks away.