Aomori Nebuta Matsuri Festival

Aomori people were indeed powerful in Nebuta Matsuri Festival!
I felt a sort of Japanese soul there. :D

The moment we arrived in Aomori, we saw many people wearing colourful festival costumes.

By the way, what's Nebuta...?
We got this festival brochure.

Nebuta Festival brochure 2014

According to this brochure, Nebuta is...

It is said that the Aomori Nebuta Festival originated from Tourou Nagashi (Floating lanterns on a river) which is a ritual event in many nationwide Japanese festivals, Tanabata Matsuri (Festival of the Weaver). For floating lanterns we put a candle inside a wooden frame wrapped in Japanese paper. The lit candle illuminates the doll when it is released into a river or the sea. It is believed that this will drive away evil spirits and bring good luck and good health. In Aomori, lanterns built in the shape of figures inspired by legends or history became the prevalent form, whereas in Hiroaki a fan-shaped lanterns (known as Nebuta) Prevailed. At one time (Meiji era, 1868-1912), people used wood or bamboo to make the frame of the paper dolls and used a wax candle for light, but eventually they changed to wire and electricity. The lanterns of today have become bigger and much more detailed.

Here's wiki about Nebuta.

Anyway, it was stunning great festival I've never seen before!

From tourists' seats

Nebuta 

There were a lot of Nebuta coming one after another for almost 2 hours!

"Hayashi" festival music is another important part of Nebuta festival.

"Hayashi" usually consists of "Fue" (flutes) and "Taiko" (drums).

Wiki is here.

I took a video of Nebuta followed by "Hayashi" festival music troops. :)

And also, we can't miss "Naneto" (jumping dancers) in Nebuta festival.

Haneto

Their energetic jumping dance makes people dance with them, with "Rassera~, Rassera~!".

I also took a video of "Haneko".

We really had a great time in Aomori Nebuta Matsuri festival!

Planning for Aomori trip

So, I planned Aomori Nebuta Matsuri festival trip 6 months before, but...
It was TOO LATE!

Transportation was still ok, but all the hotels around the festival location were already fully booked. :(
I checked surrounding areas but they are also fully booked...

I was about to give up...

Then I checked some package tours.
Train tours were also almost sold out and only expensive ones were left.
It was a little too expensive to us..
There was a bus tour.
And... it was still available and CHEAP!
What's more, 2 more festivals in Tohoku area were included in this package tour!

It definitely attracted me. :)

I was a little worried about a long bus ride, though.
As mentioned in Introduction, it's 9-hour drive by car from Yokohama, so I worried if my 5-year-old son could bear with it or not...

But I didn't have to worry about it!
My son enjoyed a bus ride and they stopped at the highway rest areas quite often.

Anyway, the tour started from Ueno at about 8am (it departures from Shinjuku actually and Ueno is the 2nd stop) and arrived in Aomori at 4pm, so it was about 8-hour drive!
Not bad. :)

Scenery from the bus

This is Mt. Iwate.

We took a Japanese tour because we went with my mother (she doesn't understand English).

But I saw many foreign tourists taking package tours in Aomori.

If you are going to Aomori for Nebuta Matsuri festival from overseas, probably taking a package tour is a better choice.

Aomori - Introduction

Probably "Hokkaido" is more familiar to foreigners, although, Aomori is located just below Hokkaido over Tsugaru Strait.
It's an upper side of "Honshu" island of Japan.

From Wiki:

Aomori Prefecture is the northernmost prefecture on Honshu and faces Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait. It borders Akita and Iwate in the south. Oma, at the northwestern tip of the axe-shaped Shimokita Peninsula, is the northernmost point of Honshu. The Shimokita and Tsugaru Peninsulas enclose Mutsu Bay. Between those peninsulas lies the Natsudomari Peninsula, the northern end of the Ōu Mountains. The three peninsulas are prominently visible in the prefecture's symbol, a stylized map.

Speaking of Aomori, it reminds me of... apples, cooling area, farms, heavy dialect (!), nature...
That's about it, actually.

Aomori to me is very far area which I'd never thought I would go from my hometown.

Here's a map of direction from Yokohama to Aomori.


Very far~!
It's a 9-hour drive by car!

But I'm talking about Aomori here because...
There is a very big and famous summer festival every year.
It's called "Nebuta Matsuri".

I visited Aomori to see this festival this year.
It was my first time to visit there and the festival was AWESOME!

You can straight away feel Japanese atmosphere by just being there!

Tokyo - Introduction

Tokyo - it's Japan's capital and most populated area.

Population: 13.35 million (May 1, 2014)

From Wiki:

Tokyo (東京 Tōkyō, "Eastern Capital"), officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都 Tōkyō-to),is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府 Tōkyō-fu?) and the city of Tokyo (東京市 Tōkyō-shi).

Since it's near to my hometown Yokohama, I'm visiting Tokyo every time I go back to Japan.

Probably Tokyo would be the first destination for most of the first timers from overseas (even for those from other prefecture in Japan!).

When arriving from overseas, there are 2 international airports in Tokyo area; Narita & Haneda.
Heneda became an international airport only recently so most of the planes still arrive in Narita.

Sometimes I hear foreigner saying in the plane "Is it really Tokyo? It looks country side..!".
It's because Narita is NOT in Tokyo..!
It's in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo.

It takes 1 hour by train to reach Tokyo from Narita airport.

On the other hand, Haneda is in Tokyo, so it's more convenient to use Haneda airport, although, it's rather small airport.

Here's the train map from Narita to Tokyo.


Here's the train map from Haneda to Tokyo.
Well.., it still takes about an hour, but this is to Tokyo Station.
If your destination is to other part of Tokyo, definitely this is better.

As you know, transportation in Japan is VERY EXPENSIVE!

BTW, there is a lot of useful sites and apps to check out the transportation routs, time and most importantly... COST!

This is one of those:
Jordan

Personally I use this site (well, in Japanese).

When you key in the places, it'll show you the options - easier way, faster way, cheaper way.. :)
It's quite convenient.

Well, that's all about the introduction of Tokyo.

In this blog, I'll divide into "ku (ward)" within Tokyo because each place has a different colour!