Nebuta festival in Aomori

Photos here.

Took green shinkansen called Hayabusa to up north, Hachinohe city in Aomori from Tokyo station. Kids (including their father) were all excited to take this shinkansen for the first time. Off course lunch and drink are must.

It was less than 3 hours ride to Hachinohe from Tokyo. Then the hotel's shuttle bus took us to the hotel, checked in and had a quick hot spring before heading out to NEBUTA festival. The bus took us to Aomori city in about 1.5 hours, early evening before the festival begins. Had a Korean BBQ dinner as we wanted to be inside because of the rain. Lots of foreigners in HANETO costume, probably US-base related people, were on the next table, having fun.

As time approached, we proceeded to our reserved seat which was board walk type of high raised temporary viewing area. The rain wasn't so bad in the beginning, though lantern floats and drums were all covered. The rain stopped for the first 1 hour, then it started pouring. We gave up and escaped to where it had roof, and all the floats were also in hurry, trying to finish up the festival quicker than scheduled. Later the guide told us it was common to have rainy days during the festival.

We arrived back to ryokan around 11:30 p.m. Mo was already asleep on the bus, and Ton wanted to have night snack with me where the ryokan arranged for the guests at their dining room, before going to bed.