Hi friends! It is your favorite Elder!
This time I got transferred to Hirosaki, Aomori. It is another prefecture and separated from Hokkaido so we needed to transfer either by plane, bullet train, or cruise ferry. The mission chooses to transfer by cruise ferry. It was my longest transferring travel for my whole mission. From Obihiro, we traveled for 3 hours by bus to get to Sapporo. And from Sapporo, we traveled 5 hours to Hakodate. We slept over in Hakodate’s apartment and woke up early to get to the ferry terminal. By then, we traveled smoothly for 3 hours and 40 minutes. It was my first time riding a cruise ferry and I enjoyed it. We arrived at Aomori and then I traveled for another 50 minutes to arrive in my new area, Hirosaki.
When I arrived in Hirosaki, it was the perfect timing for they are preparing for their Neputa Festival. I was lucky, right?
Also in this video, we went to Goshogawara, a neighboring city from Hirosaki, to witness their famous TACHINEPUTA, where they highlight godzilla sized floats on parade.
The word “tachi” means standing in Japanese, but these floats don’t just stand, they tower above crowds and move! Standing an average of 20 meters into the air (yes, 20 meters!), you can often see the tops of the floats peaking above low lying buildings before they turn a corner in the parade route. Designs tend to focus on deities, demons, and Japanese folklore. Although you can come early in the afternoon to get a glimpse of the floats, the parade itself is at night. This means all the floats are glowing from the inside, bringing a festive mood wherever they wander. Since the floats are so tall and the parade route is long, you are guaranteed to get a great view almost anywhere along the street. But you’ll have to look down, not up, to see how these beasts on wheels actually move.
Japanese culture is amazing! I love them so much.
✅ SUBSCRIBE ON THIS CHANNEL FOR MORE VIDEOS and UPDATES!
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: @olvrllo
Alo Japan.