Nebuta Festival in Aomori

In July this year, when it was extra extra HOT and HUMID, we went to the Nebuta Festival in Aomori (about 2 hours north of here) to watch the famous parade with warrior floats.  It's best at night when the floats are all lit up, but we could only make it for the daytime one. 

According to wikipedia . . . "Nebuta" refers to the float of a brave warrior-figure which is carried through the center of the city, while dancers wearing a unique type of costume called haneto (ハネト^?) prance around in time with the chant Rasserā (ラッセラー^?). In the local dialect, participation in the festival is inquired using the adjective haneru (ハネル^?, ex. "今日もハネル?" or "Are you going to haneru today?"), which was derived from the Japanese spelling of the haneto costume and the adjective haneru (跳ねる^?, "bounce").

As you scroll through the pictures, you'll notice the warrior floats, the unique costumes and maybe even some bouncing (in the videos).

The kids wore their kimono pajamas.

Here’s our little sumo wrestler.

 

Did I mention it was hot?

 

Cool costumes.

 

Huge floats,  pushed and pulled.

Big taiko drums.

Happy dancers.

 

Crazy hats.

 

Floats are decorated with amazing detail, and as you can see completely dwarf the workers underneath.

This couple stopped for someone else so we poached in on the photo shoot.

 

These guys have been walking underneath this float in 80 degree weather for at least an hour by now.

 

An example of the “warrior-figure” float typical of the Nebuta Festival.

 

Samurai meets Captain Hook.  Not sure about this guy.

 

My favorite picture.

The flutes and drums you hear in the videos were constant throughout the entire parade.  Japanese version of a marching band, and every band is playing the same song over and over and over again.

 

See if  you can spot the guy in the white dress.  I didn't know he was there until I saw the video.

More posts to come shortly as I try  to catch up with the busy summer we had.

Rob