Aomori Neputa Matsuri

Aomori was the place, Neputa seems to mean a float, and Matsuri is festival. Just came back from an amazing time up in the North, where the apples grow and people are friendly. We stayed with a Theater group my friend Lina had met, inKizu-Kuri, the Yakokan theatre company. They welcomed us, fed us and supplied us with sake, we dressed and danced and helped pull the float. Two nights of mayhem, speeches and ceremonies. Absolutely fantastic, resting in the day, wandering the vast rice fields and taking the local hot springs, under the guidance of Do-gu, the stone spirit found in a swamp there from paleolithic era. Her name; Shakochan.
I can't describe the events, there was so much drumming and flute playing competitions, there were traditional floats and super pimped up ones, they all rotated and some even bounced like the American hotted up cars. It was a feast fro the eyes, and the beers flowed throughout, we were showered with sake, and then we danced with the spirits of the dead. It was heady and intoxicating in more than one way, it was exhausting and we were soaked with sweat afterwards, then fortified by a feast back at the studio. I've never seen anything like it.