This weekend was the weekend of one of the biggest festivals in the local area. Japan has a hell of a lot festivals for a lot of different occasions, you could probably go to one every weekend somewhere in the prefecture if you wanted to, but this one was especially cool.
The Samurai festival was in Aizuwakamatsu, which is the nearest city to my town. It is not a very big city (Only about 100,000 people) but it has a long history and used to be one of the most important cities in samurai times. The festival celebrates the history of all the samurai tribes and all the battles that have been fought in and around the city. Hundred's of people dressed up in traditional samurai outfits, many on horseback, and paraded through the streets towards the castle. The procession culminated at the castle where all the tribes gathered, there were some staged battle scenes, lots of teiko drumming and some speeches from important local people, though I didn't understand those!
Loads of JETs came from all over the prefecture, and when the festival was tailing off, we all went for a Nomihodai (all you can drink) meal, got pretty merry and headed for...................... Yep you guessed it Karaoke! Yay!! Was a great weekend though!
Below are some photos from the day:
This is a picture of a friend of mine, Padriac from Ireland. He's a JET in Aizuwakamatsu and was asked to be in the parade to play the part of a German arms dealer who sold guns to the Japanese near the end of the feudal war! He's seen here with his concubine
Another friend of mine, Becca (also a Wakamatsu JET) was in the parade dressed like this. Unfortunately though I didn't catch her in a photo as it was difficult to recognise her!
This is Aizuwakamatsu Castle. Like most of the castles in Japan it is not original and but was rebuilt about 50 years ago. It still looks pretty cool though.
The tribes gathering at the castle.
A meal at the Izikiya
This really doesn't need much explaining!
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