what would japan be without its thousands of festivals? i can't find an exact count, but some estimate that there are more than 2,500 festivals in this country every year. im trying to make some of the more awesome ones while im here japan, and so heres a post about the last three i went to. also, sorry for the exceptionally long posting but its been a while since my last one so im just sort of making up for it. ok, here we go..

nagoya festival (名古屋祭り), nagoya

nagoya festival (名古屋祭り)

last month i went to the annual nagoya festival (名古屋祭り) with some fellow english teachers. saturday morning started with a huge parade going through the major areas of town. it was kicked off by three popular feudal lords from 16th century nagoya history who came out on ornate floats and did puppet shows for the crowd. they were followed by dancers, horseback riders, marching bands, and color guards. the finale was an awesome reenacted battle between dudes with long spears and a guy with a.. what the.. with a gun?! yeah, well, i guess fighting fair was overrated even back then. suffice to say, the guy with the gun totally won that fight.

a reenacting of some ancient battle

tenjin festival (天神祭り), iga (伊賀)
the next weekend i went to iga (伊賀) to watch the tenjin festival (天神祭り). the towns small size and narrow streets made this festival really freaking fun.
we had to actually push our way through the crowded streets [外人スマッシュ (gaijin smash!!)] just to get from a fellow JETs house to the interesting part of the festival. it was pretty neat to see so many people literally pulling the floats through town with big long ropes.

pulling the floats through the streets

the best part of the festival, though, was the oni (鬼) parade. onis, by the way, are like japanese demons:
what made the oni parade so hilariously awesome was the fact that parents purposely brought their young, innocent children to the festival TO SCARE THE LIVING SHITE OUT OF THEM. thats right; these terrible, terrible parents brought their young'uns to the front of the crowd for the sole purpose of scaring the tears out of them. literally! you could hear the sounds of crying babies from blocks away. and the best part? the parents were smiling and laughing about it. check out the smiling mother holding her crying child in the top left corner of this photo:

a smiling mother holding a crying baby watching a drunk oni (鬼) stumble by

that oni was particularly cool because he pretended (at least i THINK he was pretending) to be drunk. he drunkenly stumbled side-to-side through the streets the whole time. i was told that there is, in fact, a reason why parents try to scare their children: its said that having an oni make your child cry during the festival will ward off illnesses and bring good luck. the end of the parade, i got the chance to pose with an oni. all in all, this festival was one of the most fun ive seen so far.

from left to right: oni, me. hmm wait..

shouryuusai festival (翔龍祭), ryuujin (龍神)
a couple of weekends ago, i made the long trek over to wakayama prefecture (和歌山県) to visit a friend from boston. he lives in a town called ryuujin (龍神) which literally means "dragon god." his town has an annual festival called shouryuusai (翔龍祭), which means "the flying dragon festival." its pretty much the coolest name for a festival in the most awesomely named town ever.

wicked dragon art

also at this festival were a bunch of chainsaw artists making sculptures out of wood. i dont quite get the connection between a flying dragon festival and chainsaw art, but you wont hear me complaining. watching these guys use noisy violent instruments to create beautiful pieces of art was a lot of fun. their creations were actually pretty intricate too. good job, chainsaw artists!