Nebuta Matsuri

After a day of just resting up and catching up on some errands back in Yokohama, on Sunday, Sawa and I hopped onto a train with her parents for a three-day trip to the Tohoku Region up in the northeast. We ultimately hopped through three prefectures and many delicious meals and pretty sights, but the highlight was definitely the Nebuta Festival in Aomori.

I didn’t really know what to expect when going in, but as we got ourselves into position to watch the festival and saw everyone setting up, it seemed that, just like the festivals in Kyoto, the basic idea was to have lots of people dress up in traditional-ish clothes and pull giant floats through town.

Although it was the same in this respect, it was also very different in a way I really liked. While the Kyoto festivals were all pretty tame and had a sort of elitist sense of elegance, this festival was very raw and exciting. Probably the biggest difference was the huge drums they pounded, echoing through the town and giving a powerful energy, but the energetic dancing, the chanting, the dark night, brightly lit floats with warriors and demons, and even the rain that started falling halfway through all helped to give the whole thing an air of excitement that I didn’t feel in any of the Kyoto festivals. Most importantly, it just seemed that everyone was there to have a good time, there were all these people, young and old, dancing around and having a grand old time.

Of course, there were still a few cute floats, like this Totoro!

Here’s me getting all excited.