It's been over a week now since it ended so it's about time I post these photos from Hirosaki's Neputa festival. I didn't get any photos of Aomori's Nebuta parade, so unless I make it out to Noheji's exciting Gion Matsuri, this will be it for the summer festival photos this year.

...

Get your towel on, it's time for matsuri mania!




Luckily I was somehow able to find my pink granny bike from this mess after the parade ended.



Hirosaki's Neputa parade features mostly fan shapped floats, but it also contains a few interesting designs like these giant chickens.




The Colonel is very pleased to see the chicken float.



Fan and drum combos like this make up the bulk of the parade.




Requisite photo of women straddling giant drums.



Requisite photo of a giant fan. Front side always has big close up of warriors, while the back has full body portraits of ladies.




Kate and I bump into Hugh and Luke trespassing in NOVA English school's viewing area.



Another giant cock.




Anpanman thrills the crowd. I didn't get any photos, but nearby there was also a scary black samurai and our friend Hard Gay once again.



Probably the coolest part of the show was the performance put on by the Japan Self Defence Force. First they dance with pretty fans.




Then they throw their samurai swords in the air and wave them like they just don't care.









This was by far the coolest float in the parade. Kate liked it so much that she did some research and posted this on her blog...

This actually was the best float- it won first prize in the prefecture!! It was created by the Nishi (West) District in honor of Hirosaki's sister city relationship with the town of Shari in Hokkaido. The imagery comes from the 1000 year-old story of Tairano Masakato, a samurai who was beheaded in Kyoto. One day his head came to life and flew to the rural area which is now Tokyo. A shrine was erected to his head, and a curse of death befalls any who tries to move it, as proven post-WWII, when some American G.I.'s died after attempting to remove the shrine. The monster imagery comes from the "Hyakkiyako", "night of 100 goblins".

It still retained the basic style and structure of a regular Neputa fan. Perhaps the goblins inside a fan figured out some way to escape into the world of 3D.




Geos Chris, Hirosaki's only Geos teacher, is never seen without his trademark big earphones. The 1980's style camcorder is a new addition however.



After the parade it was off to good old McDonald's where we saw this scary, but still cute demon dog.




Later that night in Kajimachi we chatted with some Japanese Jazz music fans in a really interesting old bar full of autographed LP's and photos of famous Jazz musicians. To be more correct Kate did most of the chatting as my knowledge of Jazz and Japanese is pretty limitted to say the least.


Update:



Oops, ment to include these before. These two photos are of some friendly Japan Self Defense Force soldiers on their way home after jumping around in Aomori's Nebuta parade the night before.