Yasuhisa Shiozaki, elected representative for Ehime Prefecture in the Japanese Diet
A cool thing about being Mayor is that you get to officiate at ceremonies. This one was held at Temple Ishite-ji in February of 2006. The city officials are wearing traditional Samurai Kamishimo's (a garment worn over a kimono). They are tossing out ceremonial dried rice cakes (daifuku) filled with red bean paste, that will be toasted and eaten, by those who are lucky enough to catch any, when they get home. The crowd was quite intense when the daifuku were thrown out. It is considered good fortune to get them.
Link to the Mayor's page on the City's website (in Japanese)
My blog entry on making daifuku
