We went to the park to indulge in some yakisoba and beer and found that there was a band playing there. The band, Bronze, were an interesting bunch. They had bass, sax, drums and guitar/koto. Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument and usually played with the fingers and small small picks attached to your fingers. This band was using sticks to play it! I took this video.
The next day, 1st August, I met Akagawa-san to climb Mt. Gassan. He's a 56 year old guy I went hiking with last year, I think he's the head of a hiking group in Yokote city. Mt. Gassan (月山) is the highest of the three holy mountains in Dewa Sanzan, a 2 and a half hour drive south from where I live.
It was a little bit cloudy during our hike but pretty good conditions otherwise. The hike itself was not that difficult for me. But I was really surprised with the age of some people who were climbing it. There was definitely men and women over 70 years of age climbing it! And on the way up with found an old woman lying down, barely able to talk. She had decided to climb on her own, and obviously wasn't able for it. Some guys called the rescue crew to get her!
This is a statue that you can pray to for long life.
When we arrived at the summit we paid 500 yen to have a priest to say a prayer over us, and Akagawa-san was there to pray for his daughter to pass her entrance exam into high school.
We made good time coming down, and went for an onsen before we headed back home.
That sunburned evening I went to the second summer festival in Honjo, the Honjo Fireworks River Festival (本荘川まつり花火大会). Fireworks are really popular in Japan, and a lot more impressive than the shows we get at home.
The next day I headed to Amori prefecture to see the Nebuta Festival. It was a 4 hour drive north to Hirosaki where our hostel was, and then another train journey to Aomori city. Nebuta is a large scale lantern festival. Unfortunately when we were there it was lightly raining so all the floats had plastic sheets protecting them. It was very impressive none the less! In the picture you can see all the people under the float pushing it around.
The next day, Monday, we went to see rice field artistry! I had only discovered this place actually existed the week before. I had seen pictures on the Internet a long time ago but assumed that it was created using computers. The tambo art is in a place called Inakadate, close to Hirosaki city. You can climb up a castle and look down on the fields. It was really amazing!
They had a free outdoor foot onsen right beside the fields too, which was a nice little addition.
We then left Aomori and headed back to Akita city for my fourth festival in as many days, Kanto festival (竿燈まつり). This is a really cool festival where glowing lanternsin the shape of rice ears, are balanced on peoples hands, hips and heads (like the guy in this photo!).
This is a cool video I took at the end of the festival, when the guys really didn't care about damaging their lanterns!
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