Japan Festival Season

One of our favorite things about Japan is the festival season, in our area starting at the end of July and running through August.  This is our last year for many things and I refuse to dwell on things being the last.  I think that would make for a melancholy year.  Instead, I would like to enjoy all the wonderful things that Japan has to offer.  This festival season, we visited a few of our favorites and tried out some new favorites. 

In Misawa, the Tanabata Festival starts off the season.  Tanabata is to commemorate the romantic story of two lovers represented by the stars Vega and Altair who are only allowed to meet each other once a year as long as the skies are clear.  The streets of Misawa are filled with lighted lanterns and delicious festival food.

The first week of August is filled with regional festivals in many of the towns/cities in Northern Japan.  We focused on some of the festivals that we had not seen in previous years.  We attended the Hirosaki Neputa Festival where Neputa is said to have originated from the event Nemuri Nagashi, a traditional event to banish the invisible sleep demon who makes people drowsy during the summer when farm work is at its busiest.

We like to show new friends and arrivals the things we love about Japan.

This was my favorite float of the night

I love the warm lights of the festivals and the energy of the Japanese people cannot be beat

The Goshogawara city Tachineputa Festival is a summer festivalheld annually between August 4th and August 8th. Along with Aomori Nebuta Festival, Hirosaki Neputa Festival, and Kuroishi Yosare Festival, it is known as one of the four largest festivals of the Tsugaru region. It was my favorite festival that we saw this season. I felt like we were celebrities at this festival.  It seemed that when the float holders noticed a family of Americans, they drew attention to us by cheering, pointing, and carrying the floats our way.  I loved the attention!

The beautiful floats towered above us!

This style of float reminded me of the Nebuta festival in Aomori

Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of ones ancestors.  Chochin or paper lanterns are hung and displayed to guide the spirits.  Families meet to have reunions at the graves of relatives.  Obon is one of Japan's three major holidays. We traveled to Aomori to enjoy Obon at Showa Daibutsu.

The last festival of August is our very own Misawa City Festival.  They have many parades and lots of great food vendors.  We enjoyed the Mikoshi Parade.  A Mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine.  Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine.

With love, from Misawa Japan