ねぶた、たちねぷた：Nebuta and Tachineputa (part 2)

It's snowing again in Hirosaki, so it must be time to finish reminiscing about summertime...
(Part 1 can be read here)

Night #4 - Hirosaki Neputa

After pulling the Odaiko again in the third night of the Hirosaki Neputa festival, we came back as spectators for the fourth night. All the side streets connected to Dotemachi street were closed for the parade, so spectators could sit in the intersections to watch. We pulled out the leisure sheet one more time and set up at the intersection near Asahi Bowl.

The parade starts with Hirosaki's "Miss Sakura" 

Followed closely by the Odaiko crew

Odaiko moves through the intersection, with six drummers on top

Kumamon made an appearance, showing Hirosaki's solidarity with Kumamoto after May's earthquakes there

Not all the floats are on wheels- some are carried on shoulders (or overhead if you're feeling energetic)

Monkey on the float (2016 is the Year of the Monkey)

Fierce warriors and... salamanders?

I enjoyed watching the parade almost as much as participating in it, although it was a very different experience. On the night we watched, we were in a larger group of ALTs sitting all together. We were no doubt the largest gathering of foreigners that night, probably upwards of twenty attendees, and we drew the attention of many groups marching in the parade, which was both fun and a bit awkward.

Night #5 - Jumping in Aomori City's Nebuta

Last year, I arrived in Hirosaki on August 5th and didn't have a chance to go up to Aomori City to see the Nebuta Festival there. This year I decided to go up on the night when JETs and other English teachers from around the prefecture were planning to join the parade as haneto, or dancers. In a custom particular to Aomori City's Nebuta, anyone who wears the costume of a haneto can "jump" in the parade. It costs about 5000 yen to buy a costume, or about 2500 yen to rent one for the night, so I made a reservation to rent one.  Rental includes a free dressing service- it is hard to put these costumes on yourself!

Ran into my friend Andrew at the haneto outfit rental space

Out on the street with Stefan and Alex

Our crew before the parade (Photo credit to someone who is not me...)

As for jumping in the parade- well, that was an experience. Our group of nearly 50 would-be haneto disintegrated pretty quickly as soon as we ducked under the ropes that parade organizers were using to separate the masses of haneto from the more official participants like taiko groups and the actual Nebuta floats. The typical Japanese group-behavior rule book was apparently out the window as small groups of young haneto pushed, ran, screamed and even moshed amidst the larger crowd (at least a few of the moshers were ejected from the parade by the organizers, which I appreciated a lot). It was damn hot in the jumping crowd- the atmospheric heat, combined with body heat and the heat of the spotlights and portable generators, was close to unbearable, and cooling breezes were few and brief. My feet and ankles were stomped on more than a few times, and I definitely stepped on a few strangers' toes myself.

The one Nebuta float I saw, as we rushed past looking for a group of haneto to join

The rest of the night pretty much looked like this, from the inside

I brought my camera into the parade, although it was kind of silly in retrospect. It was all but impossible to take pictures with all the movement and shoving, and somewhere in all the jumping I lost the factory lens hood, although I guess I'm glad I didn't lose the lens cap, or for that matter the lens. There wasn't much to take a picture of anyway- only the backs of the people right in front of me.

I did enjoy the experience for its uniqueness- I can certainly say I've never seen or done anything like it! I was bummed, however, to miss the floats and other aspects of the parade for the second year running. My main Aomori bucket list item is still to actually see the Aomori Nebuta parade...

Night #6 - Goshogawara Tachineputa Parade

I don't know this for a fact, but I'm pretty sure the kanji for tachi in tachineputa is written as 立, which means "stand" or "standing." This makes sense, because the neputa in Goshogawara's Tachineputa parade are about 60 feet /nearly 20 meters tall. I've been told that the power lines along the circular parade route near the station were put underground to allow these behemoth neputa to move freely. I've also been told that unlike the floats in Hirosaki and Aomori, Goshogowara's huge floats are not destroyed and remade every year, but are reused for a certain number of years and then cycled out for new ones. Which raises the question of where they keep the giant neputa for the rest of the year...

From a distance, it's hard to interpret what your eyes are telling you

Oh, right. It's a 60-foot-tall paper lantern on wheels.

Sometimes the tachineputa is stacked on top of two giant drums

This guy is a little different, battling a five-eyed scorpion monster

This hero is battling some kind of water dragon

Water dragon warrior from the back

As you may have noticed, I have little actual knowledge about the Goshogawara Tachineputa matsuri... which is how I like it, I guess. Tachineputa was the first festival I saw in Japan, about two days after arriving in Hirosaki last year, while I was still deep in jetlag. That time, I got in a ridiculously tiny car belonging to a person I knew not at all (thanks Jackson!), with two other shiny new JETs whom I had never met (hello Stefan and Alex!); was driven on country roads through the rice fields; joined a crowd of strange foreigners amidst an even larger crowd of foreign strangers; and looked up to see a 20 meter tall glowing lantern with a sword-wielding warrior sitting on a peach, made completely of paper, surrounded by drums and flutes. It was a kind of impossible moment, when I had the thought: I don't know where I am, I'm not sure if I can or should believe my eyes, I have no idea what is happening around me, but it is amazing and I think things are going to be okay.

Day #7 - The Final Day

Sunday was the seventh and final day of the Neputa and Nebuta festivals. In Hirosaki on the final day the floats are taken out of town to the area where the Hanabi Taikai was held in June, and are then set on fire. In Aomori City, the floats are taken somewhere on the bay, put into the water and set on fire. After that, there's a big fireworks show.

After a crazy week of festivals every night, and in preparation for early morning departure the next day on my way to the US, I did not attend any of the final day activities, which made me a bit sad. But I got an unexpected treat when a local school group brought their neputa right down my street. I was actually in the middle of my weekly Sunday morning videochat with my family, but when I heard the drum and flute getting closer, I ran out to the balcony to watch. I was so happy to see the little group!

Elementary school kids pulling a neputa float down my street

Drumming and playing cymbals all the way. All the neighbors came out to watch.

That's it for the summer! Up next: a three-day weekend in central Iwate Prefecture.