Aomori Nebuta Festival

Aomori City was pretty.  We found parking easily.  And my, what big cones they have!

We'd heard of the locals all dressing up, so Hallie and I decided to buy ourselves some.

I love the big red boy on the backs of the 'haneto' costume.

These ladies helped dress Hallie.  What you can't see, are all the small bells you have on, so that you jingle every time you take a bouncing step.

There are several entrance points for the nebuta floats.  These guys didn't dip down enough in front when going under a street light.

And it schmucked up the hand.  Japanese limbo fail.

When it was time for the people to go sit on the street (we were on on of the corners, where the nebuta had to turn, so people could sit on the street, directly in front of the parade coming), the Japanese crush and rush was the worst I've ever seen the Japanese act.

Here's my little one.  Stefan and he got a pretty good view.  Tim and I stayed to the side and watched Ian, and still got good shots, without having to dash, trying to take all our cardboard seats, water bottles, etc. with us.  :)

I won't be able to tell you which characters these are, but some of them are brave warriors.  This one is fighting a tiger.  

The size of these things are limited to width of streets, and height of street signs.

Originally made from bamboo and lit with lanterns, they are now wire lit with lightbulbs.

Some show these gods or warriors fighting mythical creatures.  This is 3-D.  That fire is away from everything else.

The drums are really impressive.

Some show Kabuki actors.  All I get from the sign is Capital north (kanji) ka nebuta  Kanji-kanji-kanji

And if you're wearing the haneto, you are supposed to be in the parade.  Folks say, "ra-sera-sera." Which I was told is what the Nebuta, or Gods say.

Again, these lightning bolts are jutting out.   So impressive!

These are corporate sponsored.  This one is Dydo Drink sponsored (katakana is easy to read!)

The detail, even in the cloth design on these is fantastic.

And then there are the BIG drums!

Warriors fighting?

More creatures.

They had only a few comical ones.  Sponge Bob and Tom and Jerry, the 2 cartoons William collects and watches!  How fun!  They were much smaller than the big character ones.

Again, all those folks in the outfits!  Who knew we should be in the parade?!?

I wish I knew what some of these legends or stories were.

I know these are devils...

that's a samurai and dragon,

...and this is Tengu, a long-nosed goblin.

If you ever get the chance to go to Aomori City August 5-7, GO TO THIS FESTIVAL!  It is overly crowded, but amazing.  I've never seen anything to the size and magnitude of this.  

We have MANY more pictures, and I'm efforting a video.