Video clips of the 2008 Aomori Nebuta Festival.

I apologize for the somewhat lengthy pauses between the videos.  If I didn’t include them, half the time the videos skip the first half before it catches up.

Yay! Got my computer’s CD-rom working, the old one had gone bad XD

Almost a month ago now I went to the Aomori Nebuta festival for the second year, this time with a friend too. It was a lot of fun, hot, but fun. ^^ I finally got my new camera so I got a few more good shots this year too.

First off we strolled around the Aspam building and looked at souvenirs and I picked up a cool shirt. From what I gathered from the sales clerk, the design is from a famous Aomori artist. The drawing wraps around the shirt from the front to the back, and I really like the burgundy color.

Next we wandered out back of the Aspam where they house all the floats in tents. This time of year in Aomori it rains fairly often, so this is mostly to keep them dry. We got to watch some singing and dancing, and got to check out more souvenirs. The more popular ones are these strings of bells that you can wear around your neck or some to attach to your cell phone or purse.

Then we headed into the city and wandered around the shopping district. I found this really cute carp bag that I couldn’t resist XD We also picked up some food to eat, me and S (for sake of privacy he shall be known as “S”) got these giant taco (octopus) legs on a stick. They were really good too, they heat them up for you when you order them and brush on a sauce while they’re heating it.

After that we went looking for a spot to chill at during the parade. We ran into some co-workers of mine and ended up staying there. The parade doesn’t start till it gets mostly dark out, but they start setting up a little before it gets dark. Then they shoot off some fireworks when it begins then all the musicians start playing. There were some pretty cool floats with some nifty themes. But it started raining XD a lot… We were partly covered by an overhang but there were some people in front of us who jumped up when it started and moved back to where we were. But the dancers, musicians and floats kept going even in the rain! They looked soaked too XD But the floats were covered in a large sheet of plastic to keep the rain off, and that slightly interfered with the pictures unfortunately. But it was still a blast.

I think it’s great everyone gets a chance to enjoy the festival!

I have no idea XD

It’s not a festival without Totoro!

Yay Tom and Jerry!

It’s not a parade without the Goodyear blimp!

I hope to get pictures I took of the Tanabata festival here in Misawa developed soon. That was about a month and a half ago, but they’re on a disposable camera I’ve had in my car and I haven’t gotten to the shop while they were open yet XD (yay mid shift)

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We went to the Lake Towada Snow and Ice Fantavista yesterday (23 Feb). We took a bus trip there, but wow that was scary XD It felt like the bus driver was flying the bus more than driving it lol while we were driving through the narrow roads in the gorge. But it was pretty with the snow covered trees and the frozen waterfalls hanging down. When we got there we saw through the windows that it was snowing and blowing out real bad. We were afraid they were gonna cancel all the celebrations, but thankfully they still let us walk around. Man it was cold, when we got there a sign said it was -2 degrees Celsius, within an hour it was down to -5 XD We wandered around and took some pics, but we mostly just ran from place to place so we didn’t get to much snow down our jackets XD Then we tried to head to the jinja (shrine) before it got dark out, but they had it roped off ; ; That made me sad, we both really enjoy the shrines tranquil atmosphere. So we headed back to the festival area and ate some yummy food ooo, they had a snow bar, just like one up in Sapporo at their big festival, but we didn’t get anything there. What we did get though was the 500 yen refillable glass of hot mulled wine. They had 3 or 4 different kinds, one of which was Korean wine, that kind was my favorite, it had a berry sweetness to it, but not so sweet it was icky. And I could actually drink some this year cause I didn’t drive there XD

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Hirosaki Lantern Festival

9 Feb 2008

This is about my trip to Hirosaki’s Lantern Festival. It’s kinda like my trip last year to Towada’s Ice Festival, but Towada’s is a bit bigger and Hirosaki has a lantern theme about it XD

It was almost 4 till we got there, so it was starting to get dark but lanterns lights weren’t visible yet. We headed towards the main area and we found some pretty sculptures. This year is the year of the mouse so many of the sculptures were of mice. I went with my friend Ai and she brought her roommate and her roommates boy friend ^^ He has two small boys, so you might see them in some of the pictures. Let’s see, I had some tori niku (chicken) onna stick, some homemade dounuts, and some nice hot o cha (tea) to keep me warm. I <3 festival food.

Don’t forget you can click on each pic and it’ll pop up a full sized version.

A pretty chapel and manor.

I think these were a class project, and yay! Hello Kitty

Yay cotton candy! Here it doesn’t come on a paper stick, it’s in a bag and they give you a single hashi (chopstick) and you use that to pull out a bit to eat. Toy vendor are all over the place, I like the look that kid is giving me when I take the pic XD

Hirosaki Castle, I got a pic at the Sakura Festival from almost the same angle, it’s a very popular shot from there.

A lantern with a slide built into the base and a snow mouse.

A big lantern, it had to be at least 10ft tall.

A snow slide, you get in line and they give you a tube to ride down on ^^

Totoro! It’s not a festival without Hello Kitty and Totoro and a pretty Hirosaki made outta snow.

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Kakunodate Samurai houses

12 September 2007

We went to Kakunodate in Akita Prefecture on Saturday, it was about 3 hours away from Misawa. It looked like it was gonna rain all day, but when we got there it cleared up nicely, and in fact got pretty warm. We got lucky too, cause they were having a festival when we got there. The festival was very similar to the Nabuta, except that it was during the day and not lit up. It seemed like the whole town was in it too, cause there were tons of people dressed in costume. Well, the first place we stopped in town was the Ishiguro Samurai manor. It was really well preserved, and tastefully decorated. The first room we saw was a room where high ranking guests would be given tea and refreshments. The second room is one that they used during the spring and summer because it opened up onto the garden. Then the rest of the house was turned into a museum that displayed implements used during that time period, including some pretty kimonos.

The next place we visited was called the Aoyagi Samurai Manor, and was quite a bit bigger then the Ishiguro manor. Here’s the link to their site: http://www.samuraiworld.com/english/index.html The main gate was pretty big and architecturally impressive, apparently that is a sign of prestige in feudal Japan, and it “symbolized the social prestige of their owners. It was built after the family was given special permission by the lord of Kakunodate as a reward for their contribution to the domain.” The grounds are really beautiful, I’ve attached a map of the grounds that was on the back of the pamphlet they gave us. The main house itself has a thatched roof which I found interesting, cause it had plants growing outta it XD It’s cool though, cause they re-thatch it every year or so.

The armory was pretty cool, they had all sorts of weapons like spears, armor and swords on display. The folk museum was interesting too, it had lots of different folk art on display and a ton for sale. I got little usagi (bunny) and neko (cat) dolls made outta hand woven fabric, they’re really cute A lot of the “items on display have been designated as important cultural properties from the national, prefectural or municipal governments.”

OMG, the pond was crazy, it had a dozen giant koi (carp) in it. I mean these things were at least 2 feet long, and they kinda freaked me out XD

We didn’t eat at the restaurant there, cause we figured it’d be way overpriced, it did look pretty though. So instead we opted for some soba at a restaurant down the street. We had some cold soba that was really good especially since it was getting pretty darn warm outside by then. We walked around a bit more then, and stopped at a tea house, and had some very good tea made the traditional way with the whisk and powder. It came with a cute little sweet made from mochi and filled with azuki bean paste, which is a very common filling for Japanese sweets. From anime you’ll probably recognize taiyaki (see the pic below) which is filled with the bean paste. We didn’t have any taiyaki there though, but it’s a very common festival food. I’ve even found some sold at malls from vendors.
Well, I think that’s it for today. We’re not going on another trip till the end of October, but I keep trying to remind myself to bring the camera with me to the mall. I’ll see what I can do.

A pretty garden.

A comfy room.

Hand woven items.

Sword hilts.

A family shrine, it has white fox statues in it, but I’m not sure what the significance is.

Giant carp!

A well.

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