Went to the Oktoberfest tonight with Itsuki – and was pleasantly surprised on how well the Japanese liked the event … A Bavarian country band was singing German drinking songs and the Japanese where chanting to it with beer glasses in their hands and red heads. They also served genuine nice tasting German sausages, Bretzel and Sauerkraut. Was really nice to see european culture & traditions driving so well in Japan

The event was held at Tennoji Koen (park). It’s held every year in second half of September – a bit earlier than the name of the event suggest, but not complaining about that ! There are also various other Oktoberfests all over Japan (Nagoya and Tokyo have one too).

Haven’t updated my blog in a while. Still going to see festivals and other things and there is a pile of pictures i should process and upload. Maybe i will get to it one day – but not today and not this month !

This week was the wedding of some “old” friends from New Zealand and i thought it’s maybe a good idea to get started again getting into the habit of blogging a bit every now and then.  Satoko (the bride), my wife and me all visited the same language school in New Zealand back in March 2000 – So that’s like over 11 years ago where we all met. About 7 years ago she met her husband Malcolm … it took them a while, but they finally decided to tie the knot and get married for good. Luckily for us they decided to hold the wedding in Japan – so my wife and I got to see it with our own eyes (and camera).

The wedding was held in the beautiful Heian Jingu Shrine (the very same shrine that is also responsible for holding the Jidai Matsuri) in Kyoto. The weather was perfect, with plenty of sun (although rain started a bit while we had our early dinner/late lunch) and the scenery was perfect too with still nice blooming cherry blossom trees on the grounds. The whole event certainly brought a lot of good memories back about our own traditional Japanese Shinto style wedding. I wish Satoko and Malcolm all the best and hope they will enjoy their marriage the same as Itsuki and I do !

One of the things that makes the Tachi Neputa matsuri in Goshogawara so much fun to watch is the “party crowd”. Following the last of the nebuta-floats is a crowd of thousands of partying young people going crazy. I thought this warrants it’s own blog entry, with some of those pictures.

The Tachineputa festival is held every year from 4th to 8th of August. It’s one of the big top three nebuta festivals (together with the Aomori Nebuta and the Hirosaki Neputa) held in the same area. There are also smaller and less popular nebutas held all over the place (Kazuno has one, and near Odate i was driving past a small one). Each of the 3 big nebuta festivals is a tiny bit different, Hirosaki has fan-shaped floats, Aomori has square ones … and Goshogawara has tall and very impressive tower floats.

Of all the Nebuta festivals this one is still my favorite. I feel like the excellent Aomori Nebuta has grown a bit to big and popular turning into something where you are truly a spectator, where as the Goshogawara Neputa still has a lot of it’s charm and making you feel like you are part of it.

Transport: There are trains from Hirosaki/Aomori but the easiest is to come by car. There is plenty of free parking space available down at the riverbanks, just make sure you come early enough before they look down traffic in the festival area.

Website: The Goshogawara Neputa museum has a website about everything related to this festival here (all in Japanese).

The Nebuta in Aomori is without doubt one of the 3 most famous festival in all of Japan. Highlights of the festival are broadcast live on TV and every single Japanese knows about this festival. The festival draws over 3 million visitors to Aomori and the parade itself contains up to 200,000 haneto dancers.

There are many theories about the origin of the Nebuta Festival in Aomori. One of the most likely is that it originated with the subjugation of rebels in the Aomori district by “General Tamuramaro” in the early 800′s. He had his army create large creatures, called “Nebuta”, to frighten the enemy and this battle fits in nicely with the history of the Neputa festival in Hirosaki.

The Aomori Nebuta festival has a lot of energy. Lots of drums, lots of people dancing. It’s a fun festival to watch and even to participate in (there are some dressing rules, but everyone is welcome to join!). I highly recommend going to see this one if you are in the area. The city is struggling to accommodate all those visitors, if you plan on going to see this festival then make sure you book your hotels very early (usually before April).

Transport: Aomori is just about to be connected to the Shinkansen line (the last part between Hachinohe and Aomori will open in December this year). Parking for cars is somewhat limited so if you come by car then come early.

Website: Aomori Nebuta has it’s own website here (info available in Japanese, English and Korean)

The Akita Kanto festival is held each year between 3rd and 6th of August. It’s one of the big major festivals of the Tohoku Area and involves groups of men juggling lanterns hanging on 12m tall and up to 50kg heavy poles (called “kanto” – hence the name of the festival). If the kanto can be balanced for a minute or so then a 1m extension will be added to the bottom. If the kanto falls over then the extensions will be removed and the whole things starts again from the beginning. The whole thing is a competition to see who can juggle to the tallest height and on the last day of the festival there will be a champion crowned.

There are about 230 of those poles filling the mainstreet in front of the railway station. Together with the many drums and flutes it makes for an interesting spectacle to watch.

Transport: Akita and Tokyo are connected by a Shinkansen line.

Website: The Akita Kanto festival has a website (in Japanese as well as English) here.

The Sansha Taisai Matsuri takes place in Hachinohe between July 31st  and August 4th each year. The festival began back in 1721 as a celebration for a good rich harvest and is now Japan’s biggest float festival. 27 richly decorated massive huge floats are paraded in the town, accompanied by flute-players, tiger-dancers, samurais and others.

The festival is held by three Shinto shrines: Ogami Jinja, Shinra Jinja, and Shinmei-gu and during the 5 days festival they also hold other events then just the daily parade at those shrines. A sport similar to Polo (played on horses) called Kaga Biryu Kiba Dakyu during the second and third day of the festival is of particular interest, unfortunately i arrived a bit late (as usual ;-/)  to see this.

The parade is held during the middle of afternoon, except on the last day – when the parade is being held in the evening. I have no doubt that those big floats look very gorgeous during that evening parade plus temperatures will no doubt be a lot more comfortable then during the hot day time.

Transport: Come by train or car .. but if you are traveling that far up north in Japan then traveling by car makes things a lot easier and there is plenty of parking available around the train station. If not then come by Shinkansen and take the bus to the city center (or local train to Hachinohe station and then walk a couple of hundred meters).

Website: Hachinohe city maintains a webpage for the festival here.

Hirosaki, Aomori and Goshogawara are the 3 towns famous for their Neputa/Nebuta lantern festivals. Interestingly the Hirosaki festival seems to be better  known among foreigners where as the much more interesting and impressive Goshogawara festival doesn’t seem to attract a lot of us.

The festival takes place from the 1st of August till the 7th each year. From 1st to 6th there will be a parade of the many fan shaped and nicely painted floats and drums and during the 7th the parade will be held during the day in the afternoon.

One of the impressive things about the festival in Hirosaki certainly are the big drums that are being used. Many of the drums have women riding on top of them and men on the bottom and together with hordes of flute-players they make an interesting acoustics.

Transport:Take a Hayate train along the JR Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hachinohe (3 hours, seat reservations mandatory) and then the JR Tsugaru limited express train from Hachinohe to Hirosaki (2 hours). The entire one way trip takes around 5 hours – i actually don’t know if the new Shinkansen line (opening in December 2010) goes through Hirosaki, if yes then this might cut down travel times by a lot. Alternatively coming by car seems a very viable option – there seems to be plenty of parking available in the city.

Website: Japan Tourism Organization website has some info about this festival in English here and the Hirosaki town website has the official information in Japanese here.

The Nagaoka Matsuri is famous for it’s display of fireworks launched from the riverbanks of Shinano-gawa river. I however was traveling through there on the first day of the 3 day-festival and during that first day of the festival they have a huge gathering of Odori dance groups and mikoshis instead of fireworks.

The origin of this festival is a bit a sad one. The firework marks the anniversary of the US fire bombing Nagaoka during WW2. During those days many lives have been lost and most of old Nagaoka was burned down, which is the reason why there aren’t many old wooden buildings to see in this town (it’s mostly concrete now and not very attractive).

Transport: Joetsu-Shinkansen line has fast trains from Tokyo to Nagaoka (about 90 minutes travel time).

Website: The festival has an official website here (all in Japanese) and the Japan Tourism Organization has some slightly outdates/incomplete info in English here.

The Tanabe Matsuri has a history of around 450 years and is a held at the Tokei shrine in Tanabe each year on July 24th and 25th. 8 Floats (called “Kasahoko”) from the districts around the shrine are decorated with dolls and flowers and paraded through the town. The highlight of the festival happens late in the evening, when all the floats are pulled onto the bridge crossing the Aizu river and reflecting their lights in the river … but to be honest, i found that seeing the floats from close-up in front of the shrine seems a tad bit more interesting and entertaining.

Japanese summer are hot and muggy and i was sweating a lot at this festival. My shirt was all wet after the event and i was glad to get back into my car and switch the air-condition on. Sweating this crazy made me rethink my plan to go see the Osaka Tenjin Matsuri parade the next day (no way i want to be out in the sun during the day when temperatures hit 35C  and up).

Transport: Probably it’s a good idea to come by train. There seems to be very limited parking space available close to the shrine and i had to circle and look for a free parking spot for quite some time.

Website: The Tanabe City website has an excellent page about this festival (Japanese only) … and here is a website in English with plenty of details about this festival.