Sannohe Festival

So, the above picture is the only one I have of my town's festival, which was in the middle of September. Sad, huh? The truth is, I was actually IN the festival, I was helping pull one of the floats like you see above, so I was too busy walking and hauling and singing to take pictures. This picture is from before the festival started. Try to imagine a bunch of people around them pushing and pulling them, with students riding on it playing taiko drums and flutes while the pulling/pushing people sing and dance. Then multiply that by about ..16 or so. Each neighborhood in the town makes one of these floats, and they then compete to see who has the best one. They're really amazing, they have huge dolls on them, hand painted backgrounds, decorations, and all the student musicians wear costumes. All the floats have themes too, and they usually seem to depict something from Japanese folklore. The song that the puller/pushers sing is also very traditional, with two or three "main singers" with the rest of the pullers chanting the chorus. After about ten minutes, I memorized the chorus, and one of the "main singers" noticed. The main singers had wireless microphones, and at one point the one "main singer" guy was going around and holding up his mic to various people as they sang the chorus, including me. At one point, his throat got sore, and he decided he needed a little break so... he handed me the microphone and walked off. So, with one hand around a giant rope, and the other grasping a wireless microphone, I helped pull a float through the streets of my town while singing at the top of my lungs in Japanese. It was an amazing experience, I don't think I'll forget it anytime soon. :) To apologize for lack of pictures in this post, have this next one. It's just chilling in one of the restaurants here in town, and yes, it's a real one. I have no idea how old it is, but the restaurant is actually a really old traditional Japanese house, so it's probably as old as the house.... Enjoy!