Shichi-go-san
There is a festival normally held on November 15 called "Shichi-go-san" which means 7-5-3. During this time, parents take children of those ages to the local shrine and a ceremony is held. Obviously, it was a big deal in earlier times when a child made it that far with his or her health intact.
Anyway, I was exploring Sendai with Monica on Sunday, and we passed a giant torii gate (signifying the entrance to a temple/shrine) right in front of some massive stone steps up a mountain. We decided to check it out, and lo and behold, they were having the ceremony early, in a temple on the top of a forested mountain.
The priests were playing music and ringing bells. I felt it would be a bit disrespectful to disrupt the ceremony by taking photographs, even from outside, but luckily my camera has an audio recorder on it.
The quality isn't that great, and it's a rather large file, but I still think this recording is interesting. You can hear the banner flapping in the wind, and faint music in the background.
Click to listen (mono, 8 bit, 11khz - WAV, 60 seconds)