Skills to pay the bills

top:Bethany,Teddy,Tim,Mom
below:Hoshi,Rie,Naomi,me

It was kind that our Japanese friends could get their hands on these traditional clothes so that we could borrow them. Now we look like some kind a warriors or something.

What we do is 跳ねる if I say it in Japanese. It means; to hop or jump, but it's not just randomly jumping. There's a proper way you're supposed to do it.
While there is a bunch of big floats in shapes of scary looking warriors and stuff we get in front of one of them and shout ヤーレ　ヤーレ　ヤーレヤー（yare yare yareya) while we do the hopping/jumping dance thing. You get sweaty and hot very quickly and your throat begins to hurt with all the shouting you do, but it's really quite fun. The picture above is us in front of a float dancing in a circle, because we got tired of the other dance. We did the same thing, but just in a circle.
The good thing about wearing the clothes and dancing on the road is that you have fun and that you get a lot of exercise, but on the other hand you only get to see one float which you're dancing in front of. Not like the people on the side of the road that get to see all the many cool and interesting floats as they move by.

At Goshogawara they also have a nebuta festival every year and the floats they use are giganticly tall. I think they make them as high as 20meters.

One thing I really like about Nebuta festivals are the drums. I really like the sound of the taiko(太鼓) drums. It sounds really great when several people are in a line hitting big drums together with long sticks, making impressive loud beats that you can feel with your heart. It's great!!!

# posted by Aaron @ 11:51 PM