aomori bokeh 青森暈け: November 2016

I kicked off my summer by going to Sendai. After that, the lineup of events leading up to the Neputa Festival launched into full swing. I've divided the summer activities into categories, which are roughly chronological, with some overlaps. (Note: I am writing this in mid-November, with a blanket on my lap and a heater at my back...)

**花火大会 - Hanabi Taikai - Fireworks**

Every summer, or so I'm told, Hirosaki has Hanabi Taikai, a big free fireworks display held to the west of the city. The fireworks are launched over a field in a bend of the Iwaki River, and a huge crowd of all ages spread their blankets out in the field to watch. Unlike in the US, where fireworks shows are usually under fifteen minutes start to finish, the hanabi taikai features five or six consecutive fireworks displays, each put on by a different company, with a few minutes' break in between.

A group of us biked out to a shopping plaza near the river, an adventure all of its own, and joined at least half of the city (and most of our students) walking out to the viewing area. There were plenty of food stalls and vendors selling toys and games for kids. The whole show lasted about two hours and was a pretty fun time.

Fireworks at the Hirosaki Hanabi Taikai

Later in the show, the fireworks were blurred by the smoke of earlier displays

よさこい - Hirosaki Yosakoi Festival

Yosakoi is a type of dance that originated in Kochi Prefecture in the early 1950s, and took the rest of the country by storm. People of all ages, from kindergarten kids to grandmas, belong to Yosakoi dance troupes and travel around the country dancing in festivals and special events. Hirosaki puts on a Yosakoi Street Festival at the end of June, with about 30 groups from Aomori and beyond dancing down Dotemachi Street.

Each dance troupe has at least one giant flag waving during their performance

The routine involves many costume changes, hand-held rattles called naruko, crazy hair and energetic dancing

Each group also has an announcer who gets up and chants, sings, and shouts during the routine; this group also had a guy wearing a mini-Neputa float on his head

We thought the crowd was leaving to go home, but they were actually heading out to watch the competition between all the flag-wavers on one of the wider streets nearby

This is a video of one of the Yosakoi troupes dancing (may not show properly on mobile browsers)

This is a video of the flag-waving competition (may not show properly on mobile browsers)

夜宮 - Yomiya - A summer of one-night festivals

A while ago, somebody mentioned that all the temples and shrines in Hirosaki would have a festival in the summer. I'm not sure how the topic came up, but I'm guessing it was sparked by discussion of when it might be possible to eat more torimochi, following the conclusion of Sakura Matsuri. Torimochi is a festival food consisting of alternating bite-sized pieces of fried chicken and fried mochi, drizzled with a sweet glaze.

One day in late June, I was woken at 6am by two volleys of nearby cannonfire, or so it sounded. It seemed very close, and it occurred to me that I had been hearing the same sound, but further off in the distance, for a few days. My supervisor informed me that it was the signal that one of the shrines in the neighborhood would be having Yomiya, a one-night celebration, that night. Sure enough, at 5pm on the dot, I again heard the cannonfire or whatever it was, signaling the start of the festival. I didn't go investigate that night, but the following weekend I went to the Yomiya at Shinzan Jinja, near my friend's elementary school.

Festival-goers visit the food stalls on the street outside the shrine, in a light rain

Lining up to pray at the shrine while a bunch of old guys sit inside drinking beer and watching

Stefan possibly misusing the shrine gate decorated with a wreath of greenery

After paying our respects at the shrine, we ate our way through the food stalls outside, indulging in fresh donuts, tortilla-wrapped hotdogs, my favorite ichigo ame (candied strawberries), karaage, and anything else that looked good.

I managed to find a copy of the Yomiya schedule for all the shrines in the area.

The 2016, or rather, Heisei 28 Yomiya schedule for the Hirosaki area.

I saw that Awashima Shrine, a few minutes' walk from my apartment, would have a Yomiya on July 7th (along with two other shrines elsewhere). We made a date to check it out.

Queuing to pay respects at Awashima Shrine, with the old folks inside watching again

The Yomiya at Awashima Shrine was pretty packed.

Fried food stall at the Yomiya (the torimochi skewers were on that empty tray)

More stalls at the Awashima Shrine Yomiya

"Yo-yo Tree" stall on the left selling Yo-yo balloons on a rubber band

Yomiya crew

On the handy schedule I downloaded, I saw that the biggest Yomiya in July would be on Sunday the 31st at Hirosaki Hachimangu Shrine, right next to the gym where we have our weekly taiko practice, also conveniently scheduled for Sundays. As I discovered in Sendai, Hachimangu is considered a guardian deity of the Tohoku region. We managed to swing through for about 45 minutes before practice started, when the stalls were opening for business and patrons were just starting to drift through.

Just getting started at the Hirosaki Hachimangu Yomiya

Lining up to pay respects (and buy some omamori) at Hirosaki Hachimangu Shrine

After practice ended at 8pm, the shop-lined street was full of families, students, noise and delicious grill smoke. We went back to eat more fried stuff on a stick, kakigori (shaved ice) and fresh donuts. I also picked up an assortment of sparklers to set off at home. Leading to:

**線香花火 - Senko Hanabi - Sparklers**

Actually, senko hanabi is the name of one type of Japanese sparkler, but summer is the time for any sort of hand-held firework. You can buy them at Yomiya, at the grocery store or konbini, and you can even get quite an effective "seven-star" edition from Daiso that will fire a sparkling rocket up to 60 feet away, into your own bedroom window if you're not careful... Not that I know anything about that...

Expecto Patronum! Michiko and Stefan

The classic senko hanabi sparkler

Post-Awashima Shrine Yomiya sparklers

Sparklers after Hirosaki Hachimangu Yomiya, before (accidentally) launching a rocket at my house

Lotus Ponds

When I arrived in Hirosaki in August of last year, my school kindly gave me a few days off during the summer break to get myself settled and acclimated. I used one of those days to ride the 100 yen bus to Hirosaki Park, and I visited the Botanical Gardens (mostly to soak up the shade since it was about 100 degrees in the sun). I encountered a lotus pond with six-foot-tall lotus stalks and a few tightly closed flower buds.

Last year's giant lotus stalks in the Hirosaki Park Botanical Gardens

This year my friend Yukako invited me to see the lotus pond at Saruka Jinja, famous in these parts for its summer blossoms. As summer got more and more busy, we managed to go twice- once just ahead of the full bloom, and once just after the peak.

The lotus pond at Saruka Jinja

Mama duck doesn't see what the big deal is, just get down here already

I also found another lotus pond in Hirosaki Park, on the other side of the Castle keep.

The lotus pond behind the castle

Mt. Iwaki in the summer haze of July

土用の丑の日 - Doyo no ushi no hi - The day for eating eel

For some very Japanese reasons that I can't begin to explain, Japanese people eat eel on a very particular day toward the end of July. It's supposed to be good for your health to eat eel in the dead heat of summer in Japan. In 2016, the day for eating eel, "doyo no ushi," was July 30th. Sarah and Stefan had noticed a fancy restaurant specializing in eel near our neighborhood park, so we walked over a few days ahead and saw that they had a poster outside about their special eel set meals for July 30th. Stefan made a reservation, and we got ourselves there in time to be early for our 2pm appointment.

We had to wait for a minute or two, then one of the servers led us through the mostly empty restaurant (it was a bit on the late side for lunch), to a hall in the back where the private dining rooms were. We were shown into what seemed to be the best private room in the house, with a tatami floor, sunken table, zabuton cushions, a scroll hanging in a tokonoma alcove, and fancy-looking vases and statues in glass cases. There was even a mock-jizaikagi, the hook to hang the kettle over the hearth in a traditional Japanese home, shaped like a fish, hanging over the table. And the glorious, glorious air conditioning. We all wanted to take up residence in that room.