Nebuta Festival 2006

Our last summer in Japan and I finally went to the Nebuta Festival. This is the biggest festival of Aomori Prefecture held in the city of Aomori every summer. The summer of 2004 Mandy and Jeff went to the festival while Lily and I stayed home. I forgot to bring my camera so I am posting pictures of when Jeff and Mandy went in 2004. That year they were in the parade and this year we were all spectators. But, you get the picture. I am hoping some of our friends will email us some of their photos from this year otherwise, you will have to rely on my the images evoked from my words.

We gathered together, four car loads of people and drove up to Aomori. It was a little over an hour car ride. We parked the cars and walked about a mile to where the parade would be held. I have never really walked the streets of downtown Aomori before, just as the sun was setting. It is a lovely city. We crossed a bridge, over looking Mutsu bay, a port full of fancy yachts, a cruise ship, beautiful buildings, it is very lovely. We made it to the parade route and we engulfed in a sea of people. Most of the people were in their costumes getting ready to dance in the parade. We stopped at a hotel to use the bathrooms, the line for the ladies room was very long. We waited in line there for what seemed like forever, the men walking past us to their restroom and then leaving, while we waited and waited. Some things are international.

Our good friend who works with Jeff and her husband were our hosts. He works in downtown Aomori and has set out folding chairs in front of his office along the parade route, so we arrived at our designated location like royalty and had front row seats. Lily ended up sitting next to our friends and being entertained by others, I got the chance to sit next to Mandy and enjoy the parade. Jeff was standing behind us, cruising up and down the street, buying all kinds of delectable treats, like teriyaki beef on a stick etc.

The floats are of demons and warriors, beautifully made out of Japanese paper and lit up. The parade takes place just after the sun sets. The floats are hand carried by a group of people all around the float. As the float comes before a group of spectators along the route, the people carrying it turn around so you get to sit there and view all sides of the float, it also bows to you. They are incredible. Yet, on the last day of the festival all of the floats are pushed into the Sea and set on fire. So all the work and all the beauty is just for that moment and then gone forever. Every year new floats.

Behind each float is a set of enormous drums. Three or four drums being beat to the rhythm of the Nebuta festival, the whole festival has this rhythm, it is loud and it enters your being. Behind the drums are a dozen or so bamboo flautist, playing the tune of the festival. Behind the flutes are the dancers. They are corralled into a pen, surrounded by a long post in front, ropes along the sides and another post behind them. Sometimes there are dozens sometimes it looked like hundreds of dancers in a section. They have a chant, and a dance, that they all do together, sometimes the crowd joins them. Little Lily was enjoying this so much she was dancing the entire parade. This set up, float, drums, flutes, dancers is then repeated and repeated it seemed like more than 20 by my estimation. So I sat in the cool evening breeze and was amazingly entertained. I will so miss Japan.

I know I make it sound like I am leaving tomorrow, we don't leave until the end of March, I just like to draw it out and savor the goodbyes. Hopefully I will get some more pictures of the festival for you, otherwise go to the link above and see the official website of the Nebuta Festival in English.