Summer (Mikoshi) Festival

Festivals are a very big part of life and entertainment here in Japan. Almost every weekend, even during the winter, there is a festival somewhere in this region. Two weekends ago the three of us went to a Summer Mikoshi Festival here in the city of Misawa. The festival was all weekend long and had several diffrent types of parades, dancers, and vendors. The weekend ended with a firework display on the Pacific Ocean beach. They encouraged American military to carry floats, sing and dance as well.

We went to the "Portable Shrine Parade" Saturday night of the festival. It was a very diffrent parade than anything we've ever seen in the States. The participants in the Parade carried shrines that all symbolized something and chanted a diffrent phrase for each Shrine. (No, we're not sure what that symbolism was). Most of the participants were Japanese men...and they were all very, very drunk (which is socially acceptable during festivals). Behind each group was a truck that carried more than enough beer for them to consume. We compared it to a 4th of July Parade where the people on the floats are throwing candy. Then repace the candy with beer and that was atmosphere of the parade. Japanese drunks are very diffrent that American drunks. They were pouring beer on each other and chugging a beer each time they stopped. However, for as drunk as most the men were, they were not out of control and did not spill into the crowd. In fact, this was still a very family orientated even. Jason and I were sitting on the street curb watching the parade surrounded by Japaese families, most with younger children who came to watch the parade. The parade participants interacted with the spectators and gave Jason a beer if his was empty. This is a testament to their culture where they go about their business politely(drunk or not) without disturbing or bothering their surroundings.

Jacob was a champ as usual. He slept through all of the parade, even with the loud music and drums. Of course, the minute we were home and opened a soda can....boy, that woke him up! I have to admit, we felt very comfortable and at ease at the parade. There Jason and I were, sitiing on the curb, watching the parade with Japanese families, eating Japanese festival food (we had shish kabobs {they love their meat on sticks} and yakisoba {Japanese noodles}) with our chopsticks and Jason drinking three different types of Japanese beer that he was donated. We felt like we had successfully merged into the culture. Enjoy the pics!