Livin' the McDream: Aomori Nebuta Festival 2013

On to the exciting stuff! (This is Nebuta Part 2, so if you haven't checked out Part 1 you may want to start there!) First a little about our dinner...haha, we did do more than just eat today. We had dinner at a yakiniku restaurant. That's a type of restaurant where there is a grill in the table and you cook your own food. Most places have American style tables and chairs, this place did not, we had floor cushions.

Plate of "pickles," daikon radish, cucumber
and something else...a root maybe?

More "pickles," mushrooms, beansprouts and other stuff.

Miso soup, yakiniku sauce, uncooked beef.

Yummy!

And finally, it was time for the parade to start. We had reserved seats on the street so it was easy to go join in the dancing or hang out in our seats with a beer. We mostly danced! The pictures get a little blurry here, as I forgot to stand still while taking them :) I'm still angry at myself for not remember to take any video during the parade...sigh, the pictures don't do it justice!

Several of the floats were covered with plastic
to stay dry in case it happened to rain.

Where am I? haha

The floats are all moved, pushed/pulled/spun
around by people, no motors involved!

Can you find Keenan in this picture?

What about in this one?

Ok, so like I said, I hate that I didn't get any video footage. Here's a link to a couple YouTube videos of past festivals so you can kind of see what it's like, fast forward to the 4:00 minute point of the longer one and it shows some dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wewDLBAtLs8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_1qyVURScc

They don't really do it justice, the crowds we participated in were super energetic and fast moving, we basically jumped around like they do in the first video the entire time which was a couple of hours! We'd jump in with a group about half a block up from where we were stationed, dance with them for a block or 2 then run back and join the next float's group. Chanting Rassera! Rassera!