05 December 2014

Akita - Kanto Matsuri Festival

After going through Akita sightseeings, we finally headed for Kanto Matsuri location.

Brochure

It was still a little early so we decided to have dinner first.

We went to one area which had a lot of food stores.

It's a typical Japanese food stores you can see in a festival. :)

I had Ramen~.
Cheap and nice!



We went to the reserved seats and wait for the festival to begin!
They were just marching like this for a long time..

Here's the video I've taken.
"Hayashi", the festival music brought us to festival atmosphere.

BTW, what's "Kanto Matsuri Festival"..?
From Wiki:
The Akita Kantō is a Japanese festival celebrated from 3–7 August in Akita City, Akita Prefecture in hope for a good harvest. Around two hundred bamboo poles five to twelve metres long, bearing twenty-four or forty-six lanterns, topped with gohei, and weighing up to fifty kilograms, are carried through the streets by night on the palms, foreheads, shoulders, or lower backs of the celebrants.[1] The festival is first referred to in a[who?] travel diary of 1789 The Road Where the Snow Falls.It is one of the main festivals in Tōhoku, along with the Tanabata festival in Sendai, the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri festival, and the Hanagasa Matsuri festival in Yamagata. The Akita Kantō festival was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1980.

It's getting dark and festival seems to start soon..


Finally lanterns are up!


They carry such a big lantern on a hand, a side of the hips, or a side of the shoulders.
 Or even on a forehead!

A lot of lanterns were coming on and on..

Even small kids can carry the lantern!
So cute!


Some of the lanterns are so high up!

Because those lanterns are carried by humans and they need balance to keep it straight.

Sometimes they lost balance and the lantern was falling down towards visitors' seats!


Here's some videos I've taken.




It was an enthusiastic Japanese festival.

Great experience.. :)



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