They say you have to try this once while living in Misawa

You already know Japanese are big into festivals. Really big. During summer, it seems that every weekend there is some sort of celebration of fireflies/harvest/tanabata/whatever accompanied with festive food and parade with floats. And of course, lots of Taiko drums. It’s fun!

Well, one thing you cannot miss in the Northern Tohoku is Aomori Nebuta Festival. One thing you should do if you live in Misawa is be IN the Nebuta Festival. And that is exactly what we did (you all know how adventurous we are don’t you?haha). This year, Nebuta was happening on August 2-7. That means that EVERY night people gathered (crowds!) to watch the parade with spectacular floats from 7 to 8:30 pm.

In July, my friend, Maki, asked me if I wanted to join her and her friend in the Nebuta parade. She and her friend would bring their daughters, rent traditional parade costumes and go dancing in the crowds. I thought that sounded crazy and daring for me, so I decided to take Katya and Alex and do it! Robert was in TX, so I had to leave Mark with a babysitter for half a day.

I wish I could tell you more about where to go and how to reserve costumes. My friend did all the work. We just drove to the store in Aomori, picked up our costumes and had the ladies help us get dressed in them properly. Katya and Alex wore their jimbaes because I didn’t want to spend $35 on each rental of costumes for them.

That’s the front of my outfit—married women wear red skirts this length, while single women wear pink skirts that are shorter.

The back with many layers and ties.

Piles of reserved costumes waiting for people to be picked up.

After we got all dressed up, we walked to one of the Chinese restaurants nearby and had dinner. It was kind of funny, both—Maki and her friend bought meals of rice and some meat to SHARE with their daughters (Ages 4 and 7).  And then my Katya and Alex both wanted their OWN bowls of ramen (noodle soup) and….they both finished them completely…

My friend Maki and Shoko.

Right before 7 pm, we walked over to where we thought parade started, but it turned out to be one of the last groups of dancers. After standing around and waiting for action for about 20 minutes, we decided we needed to change our spots. So we walked across the streets to the part of the huge parade that was actually moving. Basically, if you see any people dressed like you, you just join them in dancing. Only people who have a rental costume can dance IN the parade. The ropes separate different groups—the people with cymbals and “flutes”, the floats, the professional dancers, the “crowd dancers” like us. Everything is very orderly and timely.

Because it was an evening parade, we didn’t feel hot at all, nothing like last year. The kids loved dancing the special Nebuta dance that you pick up really fast and singing “Rasera-arasera” or something like that.  And the people who were watching us from the sidelines loved when we waved at them with our fans.

Hundreds of people watching.

We lasted almost one hour. The experience was definitely worth the money spent. The kids were exhausted and were excited to get a frozen treat. We watched the parade for several minutes longer and then made our way to the rental shop to return our costumes.

I am so glad we took this opportunity this year. This was something I will never forget.

Next year at the time Nebuta happens,we’ll probably either getting ready to  leave Japan or already somewhere in a new place.

Finally, here are some pictures of the floats. They are beautiful in real life. This year the Samurai (the good guy) is the Japanese people while the Ogre (the bad guy) is the Wave.

And some pictures of how people looked in general:)

All right, I’ve got to start going to bed before 11pm. School has started, so no more sleeping in till 7:30-haha.