Aomori Nebuta Festival

The end of July-early August is the season of festivals, it seems. One of the annual festivals for early August, and actually one of the most famous festivals of northern Japan, is the Aomori Nebuta Festival in Aomori and is part of the three festivals of Tohoku that are in the first week of August. It is an upbeat festival that has homemade and handpainted floats that proceed in a parade with music and dancing. Although the origins of the festival are unclear, it is thought to be a post-battle celebration. 

The day before my birthday, Charles and I were fortunate enough to get to go on a trip to Aomari and watch the parade. We got to the city a few hours early for the parade, so we had the opportunity to walk around the area in which the floats were stored and people were getting ready. Here we got to look at the floats up close, and it was incredible. Both the size and the level of detail is insane. The floats were hand painted. You could see the brush strokes on the paper. We walked around the main area of the city and bought some souvenirs (I got socks that had fish on them!). 

On our way to find food, we ended up at Utou Junja Shrine. It was a small little area, but it felt like we were being transported out of the city in the middle of downtown. It is actually amazing how the Japanese people do that. These little natural sanctuaries are in the middle of a busy city. We ended up sitting down next to a little pond that had a bunch of turtles in it! There was even one really curious turtle who kept coming up to us, perching itself on the ledge and staring at us. It even got out of the water at one point but couldn't get up over a curb, or it may have walked right up to me. It was so cute! 

For dinner, we got ourselves some Yakisoba, sitting by the water to eat it. At this point, it was time to head toward our seats for the parade. Along the way, we stopped at this cute little table that was selling snow cones with homemade apple syrup (Aomori is known for its apples). I walked up, and it was almost a little scary. Everyone was yelling their handful of English words that they knew. This family was actually really sweet. In our conversations, I mentioned that my birthday was the next day, and they ended up singing me Happy Birthday! It was so much fun! If I get to go back, I will go to their shop. It wasn't far off the main street. The snow cone, by the way, was actually super delicious. It even had chunks of apples in it. It's probably the best snowcone I've ever had. 

The parade itself was an experience. All of the music (flutes and drums) were done live by people walking down the street, and the floats were pushed by a bunch of guys. Which is not something we typically see in the US. The floats in US parades are usually motorized, but with the people punching them, they were able to move around the street and interact with the audience. There were several times when it would stop and turn and almost charge at the audience. You could see the effort don't their faces trying to stop the momentum of the gigantic floats. 

Between the musicians and the floats were large groups of dancers. Something interesting about this parade is that anyone can join the parade as a dancer. They just have to have the outfit, and every department store in the city sells them. They had bells attached to their outfits and jumped around. It is actually said that if you catch a bell that fell off of the dancer, it was good luck. Many of them just tossed bells toward the audience. I ended up going home with five bells and two fans that were being handed out by people in the parade. 

But that's not all!

We went and saw the parade on Friday, but the festival actually ended on Monday. So I went back to see the finale. The finale consisted of the four winning floats from the festival being loaded onto boats and paraded around the harbor and fireworks. I took the train up and arrived right as the parade was starting. I ended up getting a spot on the beach to watch. The downside was that my whole view was being framed by two bridges. I guess that is what I get for not getting there earlier. I could just see the floats through the bridge at the bottom, and some of the fireworks were cut off by a bridge above me. Something I found interesting was that the fireworks weren't just after the boats went by but actually, as they started their way around the parade route. So it was boat + fireworks four times. This was actually one of the most interesting fireworks displays I've ever seen. The fireworks themselves were so good, with a really good mix of different types. There were even some that were in shapes, like elephants and cat faces and hearts. The only strange part was that the fireworks lasted for an hour and a half, but it wasn't steady. There were 3-10 minutes between spurts of fireworks.  The later the fireworks went, the shorter the gaps between were, but it's still interesting that there were some. If I didn't know what time the fireworks were supposed to be, I probably would have left early because I thought it was over. Still super glad I went and will hopefully go again. 

Misawa Tanabata Festival

 

The Tanabata (七夕) Festival is a festival that is held all over the country every year. It is also called the Star Festival (星祭り, Hoshimatsuri). It is the celebration of the annual meeting of the two star lovers, Vega and Altar. According to the legend with Chinese origins and the Chinese Qixi Festival. It is said that the two stars are separated by the Milky Way and are only allowed to meet once a year. The festival is celebrated with beautifully decorated and colorful bamboo branches and ornaments. A tradition of the festival is also to write your wish on a slip of colorful paper called tanzaku. It is then tied to one of the bamboo branches. The belief is that the star lovers will grant the wishes tied to the branches. 

    I was fortunate to get to celebrate this particular festival in my town. It is interesting because it was either advertised to the base or held in tandem with the Misawa Beer Festival. There were about six booths in a line that all had various beers and ciders. Along with this, there were several booths that had street food, such as Yakisoba (Japanese stir-fried noodles), Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), and Yakitori (grilled meat on skewers). Also, desserts like bubble tea, Japanese street crepes, snow cones, and a bunch more. The smell was incredible. The heat was also intense. End of July/August tends to be the hottest month of the year in Misawa, so it was 90+ with high humidity. 

    Charles and I walked around the festival with some of his work friends for a while, enjoying the drinks and the food. It was a really good evening. 

    Toward the end of the night, everyone was tired of being out in the heat and ready to sit down and hang out somewhere. Instead of the bar, we ended up at Karaoke. I was really grateful that we had two Japanese speakers in the group because organizing 10 people for Karaoke was not easy. But we sang our hearts out for an hour, and by the time we were done, we were so ready for bed. After all, Charles and I were heading out to Sendai the next morning. But that's a post for another day. 

The Garden of Morning Calm- Light Festival

Yes, I went back to the botanical gardens.

I can't help it. I love them.

This time I wasn't there for the flowers. In the wintertime, the arboretum puts out a spectacular lights display at night. It was something I really wanted to go to last year but I didn't get a chance to go. So when the festival rolled around again this year, I was determined.

I ended up going with two other ETAs in Hwacheon. Since school is over, we are working half days right now so we decided to leave after lunch. We ended up shopping in Chuncheon for a bit and finally headed over to the gardens around sunset. It took almost an hour to get there by train and taxi.

We could see the lights from a distance and it was so beautiful. There were arches of lights and little houses and a whole sea made of lights. It looked like the perfect place for couples as well. There were a lot of really romantic spots  I had so much fun walking around and taking pictures. My phone didn't though. It decided that it didn't want to be cold anymore and died. I was very happy I brought my portable charger, or I would have had to walk home.

Lantern Festival in Seoul

Anyone who knows me, knows I love lanterns and lights and all that stuff. Or if you've read my post from the Jinju Lantern Festival last year, I traveled for hours just to get to that festival for one night to see those lights.


When I learned that there was a lantern festival in Seoul, I had to go. I just wanted to see the beautiful lights and everything again. And Seoul is a lot closer than Jinju. I traveled around a bit in the hours before I got to the festival, and I was very surprised when I actually arrived. The festival was along the Cheonggyecheon Stream, a man-made stream in the heart of Seoul. Because of this, it was very cramped, and you couldn't stand too long at any one lantern. It was missing some of the grandness I had seen at the Jinju lantern festival. I think it might be better if they did this festival on the Han river. It's much bigger.

The floats were nice though. Each one showed some sort of history or represented a story, either Korean or foreign. There was a whole section of lanterns from stories that any American child would immediately recognize. It was also a lot shorter than I expected it to be, but I'm still glad I went. It was beautiful too.

Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Fishing Festival

During the majority of January, my beautiful town held a fantastic festival. From the name of the festival, many would think that there wasn't much to it. They would ask what there even was to do beyond ice fishing. But this three-week festival was so much more than just ice fishing (though that was a huge part of it).

I first read about this festival way back in July when I first learned I was being placed here. I was so excited. Festivals are a huge part of Korean culture, and to have one that belongs to my placement was such a great thing to me. 

Now, this isn't a small thing in Hwacheon. The county government goes all out. They started putting lights and fish decorations up in the trees and along streets way back in December. And these weren't small decorations. It was almost excessive. But it was so beautiful. As a girl who absolutely loves lights, I was in heaven looking at them. During the festival, they even closed down the main street (which was covered in lights), and you could walk down the street and listen to the entertainment and eat food from vendors. 

The first thing I got to experience was the Indoor Ice Sculpture Plaza. It advertised that it was the largest indoor ice sculpture plaza in the world. And it was pretty grand. I actually got to go early. Afterschool one day, just before the festival started, all the teachers at my school were given tickets to go visit the plaza. It was so cool, not only because it was so beautiful, and it was awesome to see the art, but it was just the teachers from my school (it wasn't open to the public), so I was able to get good pictures of the castles and the sculptures without a bunch of people in the way. The entire place was made of ice. Looking at it, it looked fake but once you are up close you realize it's all real. It's all ice. Amazing. You could actually go up in the buildings and everything. There was even a slide. 

The festival itself took place on the frozen river that goes through my town. Probably about three-quarters of it was used for ice fishing (as that is what the festival was all about) but there was a portion for other activities. What was neat about the ice fishing, is that since the festival was foreigner friendly, there was one section of the river portioned off just for foreigners. It was really nice because the Korean part was really crowded all the time. I actually went fishing on three separate occasions, and I didn't catch a fish a single time. I did, however, get the fish my friends caught off their hooks. A few of them were really squeamish. I felt really bad for the fish. I knew I was hurting it, but it had to be done. 

The other activities were a lot more fun, and a lot less violent. It's near impossible to write everything that I did, but here are a few highlights. There was a giant snow tubing slide that slid onto the frozen river and a 500-meter long zip line over the fishing areas. They had ice skating, traditional ice sleds, ice soccer, and curling courts. Even barehanded ice fishing (where you get into a pool in shorts and a t-shirt and try and grab as many fish as you can with your bare hands, I didn't do that). There was delicious food lined up along either side of the river and even little tent restaurants where you could take your freshly caught fish and cook them up and eat them. There were some activities for kids that I couldn't do. One section beside the river was Ethiopian themed. I didn't know this, but apparently, some Ethiopian soldiers fought in the Korean War actually in Hwacheon, so now they do an exchange scholarship program with the country to this day. They served Ethiopian coffee and had mock buildings that were created to look like they were from the time of the war. You could even dress up in costumes. 

It was such a wonderful experience and I am so lucky to have had this festival in the place that I am living in.

Jinju Lantern Festival

My first big adventure away from Hwacheon was the Jinju Lantern Festival. I spent over 6 hours on buses. It was not a very fun ride. It was long and tedious and may not have been worth the actual total time I spent in Jinju.

The festival is another story. When I first arrived, I walked about 30 minutes from the bus terminal to the cafe that the other fulbrighters were hanging out at. I was so happy to see some familiar faces, especially since I hadn't seen most of them since we left orientation. In the small group, it was nice, catching up and just being able to speak English with someone else whose native language is also English.

The festival itself was a blur of beautiful sights, sounds, and smells. The lanterns lived up to the hype with the hall of a thousand wishes and the lanterns in the water as well as up by the fortress. There was even a water show set to music!


There was so much to see, I wish I lived closer to go more than a few hours just so I could see all that the place had to offer. There was so much to it. It is just so hard to describe everything that there was to see.

When we finished going around the festival, a few of us decided to break off from the main group and get some hot chocolate at a local cafe. It was a perfect end to a perfect night. It was exactly what I needed at the end of such an exhausting day, especially since I had to get up the next morning and take the 6ish hours on the bus back to Hwacheon. Though this time the first bus had a USB plug for my phone!

My First K-POP Concert!

This post is going to be short and sweet. Over the weekend I went to the Leasure Sports Festival in Chuncheon and it was actually a lot of fun. I saw Taekwondo demonstrations, people climbing up a rock wall and falling into the water when they couldn't make it to the top, and these really talented BMX riders from several different countries like Japan, China, and the Philippines. It was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be and I actually wish I had been able to stay longer than a few hours.

That evening there was a K-pop concert to kick-off the opening night of the festival. There were so many bands there ranging from very new to huge fan bases. I will definitely be looking up a few bands that were there in order to learn more about their music. I enjoyed their songs. I also got to go with one of my other Fulbright teachers and a few EPIK teachers. It was really fun talking to other native English speakers, especially after a full week with my host family.