So what is the Nebuta Festival? I'll let this info from www.japan-guide.com and the official Nebuta site http://www.atca.info/nebuta_en/nebuta.html explain it:
"Nebuta and Neputa are a type of Tanabata related summer festival held in towns around Aomori Prefecture. The largest of these festivals is the Nebuta Matsuri (ねぶた祭) of Aomori City, held every year from August 2 to 7. The highlight of the festival is the daily parade of enormous lantern floats, flanked by large taiko drums, musicians and dancers. The Nebuta Matsuri together with Akita's Kanto Matsuri and Sendai's Tanabata make up the Tohoku Sandai Matsuri (Three Great Festivals of the Tohoku Region).
Local teams build the festival's two dozen floats, which are constructed of painted washi paper over a wire frame and take an entire year to design and construct. They can be up to nine meters wide and five meters tall and often depict gods, historical or mythical figures from both Japanese and Chinese culture, kabuki actors, and characters from the popular NHK Taiga Drama historical TV series.
Various events are held during the festival at Rassera Land next to the ASPM building along the city's waterfront. The festival floats are stabled at Rassera Land during the day, and visitors are encouraged to check them out up close, take pictures and meet with some of the designers and builders. There are also singing and dance performances held at ASPM as well as vendors selling food and festival related goods."
"Recognized as one of Japan’s Three Big Fire Festivals, the Aomori Nebuta Festival is renowned internationally and is designated as a significant intangible folk cultural asset of Japan.
During the festival, more than twenty large nebutas – large lantern floats decorated with human figures – are wheeled along the parade route in the city of Aomori. Ahead of each float, Nebuta dancers called haneto dance wildly to the hayashi music of the Nebuta Festival,making the summer night festival lively and exciting. The fantastic view of lantern-lit floats and the dancers’ shouts of “rasse rasse” are overwhelming. It certainly is a genuine fire festival of Japan.
The Aomori Nebuta Festival attracts as many as 3 million tourists a year."
We went to this festival with some of Keenan's co-workers and some family members. Aomori is the name of the city and it is about 63km (39mi) from Misawa and the drive takes just under 1 1/2 hours when going there via the toll road, longer if taking a non-toll route. Here's the map:
On our way to the festival we stopped at a rest area...
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| Yes, horse is commonly eaten here. |
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| Pastries are sold almost everywhere and they are delicious! |
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| NO, this is not an illusion, he definitely had to duck his head going it to this place! |
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| Funny vending machine ads! |
We stopped at a French restaurant, Saint Marc, for lunch. The meals included several courses and all you could eat bread from the bakery, yum!
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We both had this "set", got to choose
our appetizer, main course and dessert.
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| One of several trips to the bread bar. |
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| Soup of the day was delicious, it was burdock root soup. |
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| Green salad with bacon bits, appetizer translates to "Fran champignon of scallop". It was raw scallop on some gray stuff, assuming a mushroom puree based on the "champignon" and I think all of that was on top of mayonnaise...it tasted like mayonnaise. If anyone knows what it is for sure, please share! |
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| My main course, "Vinaigrette grilled chicken-style mustard," didn't get a picture of Keenan's but his was "Vinaigrette of sesame and green layer of grilled spring chiken." |
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| My dessert, creme brulee with fruit. |
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| Keenan's dessert, creme brulee with vanilla ice cream. |
After lunch it was time to go get dressed up and become a Haneto!
That's "a dancer who dances wildly to the hayashi music during the parade. 2,000 dancers or more may accompany one float. Anyone one can take part in the parade regardless of haneto dancing experience."
We rented our "costumes" and luckily the shop also dressed us. I think this was a little intimidating for the guys as they were sent into a room with a couple of women that ordered them to take off their clothes, which they weren't expecting to have to do! They convinced the women to let them keep their athletic shorts on. I don't remember exactly all the layers, but there was the pink/blue layer (okoshi underskirt) that went from the waist to the knee, then the yukata (light weight cotton kimono), on top of that there was a string tied around the waist to hold it at the right length, then a wide thick sash and then the yellow sash (shigoki sash). Also had the red sash (tasuki sash) tied around the shoulders to hold up our sleeves. I somehow got away with keeping on my regular sandals and not having to wear the white festival socks and sandals (tabi socks and zori sandals), but they did insist on tying my sandals to my feet so they wouldn't fall off! Normally "bare feet" are not allowed. We each got a bag to put our other clothes in and a tag with a number so we could claim our stuff later when we returned our costumes. It was actually pretty convenient. Not sure if we would have done it without the help of some Japanese friends setting it up, but so glad it worked out this way! Our Haneto outfits were completed with some little bells, and off we went! The costumes were $40 each to rent, but worth every penny since they are required to participate in the parade.
Before the parade starts they have all of the floats displayed so you can get an up close look. We checked them out then grabbed a couple beers before dinner. Truly amazing that these are made of wire and paper! It's easy to see why it takes a year to make.
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| These ladies insisted on having their picture taken with Keenan! I thought they wanted both of us, but when I stepped up they pushed me away! Haha! |
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| One of the large taiko drums. |
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| This is the ASPAM building in Aomori. |
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| Squid for sale! |
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| Food vendor, squid cooking. |
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| More squid. |
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| Many different things on a stick for sale here, won't even try to guess! |
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| More foods on a stick. Fish obviously, and scallops. |
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| Grapefruit chu-hi. |
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| Trying some of the squid. I tried it as well, taste was ok, but texture was not so great, very chewy. |
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| These are in most bathrooms, I finally remembered to take a picture. When you push the button it plays a flushing sound to hide any other sounds that might occur while using the bathroom... |
Continued at Aomori Nebuta Festival 2013 - Part 2...where the exciting stuff happens!
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