August--Festivals

Festivals!

Here are some videos and pictures from two festivals we went to in August.
(make sure you click directly on the "August--Festivals" link for the videos to work smoothly)

This is from the Nebuta Festival in Aomori City. Aomori is the closest larger city to us, perhaps an hour and a half away by car. Their most famous festival of the year is Nebuta, which is held in August. The origins of the festival seem to be pretty nebulous, as does the reason why everyone chants "ra se ra se ra se ra!" which does not seem to have an actual meaning.
They make huge floats that are lit up from the inside, and are carried and pushed around by dozens of men. Then there are big groups of dancers, singers and tambourine players (chanting Ra Se Ra!" and huge drums that are wheeled past, all pounding the same rhythm.
We went to this festival right after we got here, and we were really amazed by it.




A float all lit up




A Drum float passing


In this video, you can see how they carry the float by, then pause and turn it around so you can see the back and sides. You can also see the guys carrying it. It looked like a tough job. The same drum beat is continuous throughout the festival, as is the tune that the flute players play while walking by.


Tom and Jerry on a float.






We see some interesting messages on shirts here.




One of the huge drums.





The next pictures are from a festival in the city we live near, where the base is--Misawa.
We actually live in Oirase town, just south of there.
The festival had a different type of float with lots of woodwork and sometimes people riding on top. Parts of the floats folded in when it was time to go around a corner on the street. The food at this festival was fun. Lots of interesting things to try.

Misawa Festival Floats

More Misawa Festival

Wandering among food stands. The best thing we got that night happened to be chicken curry and flat bread, made by the people who own an indian restaurant just outside of base.

A Japanese band playing the Beetles (they were playing mostly 60s American music).


The next few videos are from the next night of the festival. Andrew and I didn't go (Dave went alone with Katelyn), but they had smaller floats that they carried down the street, and then into the plaza area, where they lifted them up and down to music. Again, we're not sure why.

This float is for Misawa's 50th anniversary this year.








Katelyn bundled up.