April 27th, Yabusame Archery Competition in Towada

The next day, I was able to witness "Yabusame" live and in action and wow...I was super stoked to see such coolness all in one weekend. This was an all women's event that had about 30 riders. The tournament was ran in tradition style with the best riders moving to the next round with quarter, semi, and finals. Each round consisted of 3 riders with 2 passes each attempting to nail 4 targets. If the riders had the same number of targets scored, then the deciding factor was the time and average speed. YES THE SPEED WAS RECORDED!! I guess it makes sense because it would be super unfair if some riders rode really slow hitting all targets huh?

Here, let me break it down for you a bit. If you have ever tried archery, just standing still and hitting the mark is pretty hard...now mount yourself on a horse...get bucked up and down.... pull an arrow out...careful, don't drop it now... load the bow (I mean get that arrow onto the string)....then try to hit your target while blazing by. WTF!! It must take an insane amount of practice and concentration huh? I was surely impressed.

I've come to find that Towada city is a great place. Theres a lot of traditional events that promote culture and uniqueness. I was glad I stumbled upon the website that had all the good info about it...sometimes you just get lucky. Also, Towada has a lot of yakiniku restaurants! Gotta love that!

April 26th, Yosakoi festival in Towada

Dance dance dance the night away! What a cool way to end an evening and watch the magnificent tradition jazz'd up dancing of Towada's Yosakoi Yume festival. This was held on the main strip in Towada City after the towns people all gathered to witness this live dance off. I was stoked to observe and take pictures. Awesome!

There was a cool vibe in the air that night and I think it was mostly because of the timing. Let's see.....Sakura in full bloom, people out in the cold (6C) celebrating spring, festival of dreams...c'mon what a win win combination. The dance off consisted of about 30 teams from all ages wearing unique traditional festival style clothing to techno stylish poppin' like MJ's thriller....it was sweet. Did I mention this was also at night? Ooooh, what a stage.... Professional photographers, news people, amateurs, hobbyists, were all there snapping away. It was extremely hard to freeze movement but I did manage to grab a couple of banger pics that I enjoyed. To my surprise, Tohoku was also there representing true Tohoku Town pride. And they rock'd the show. In my opinion, best dance of the night!
Anyways, it was a good time had by all and I was really happy that I went and watched the show. Next time all I need is a friend to drive so I can have a few beers at the food stands. Yummmmmy!

黒石祭り - Kuroishi Festival

demons
Originally uploaded by notegra

This the first time in 4 years that I was able to attend the Kuroishi Festival. For those who are unfamiliar, Kuroishi literally means "black stone". Kuroishi is what I would call a medium sized town for Aomori prefecture with 38,733 people and sits beneath the Hakkoda mountain and borders Hirosaki City.

From Tohoku Town, it took a little over 2 hours by car if the desired route is to pass through the mountains which I found extremely invigorating. The F1 like hairpins caused my tires to whine like dying dogs and the roller coaster terrain could rumble the strongest stomachs. On a few occasions, the steep incline even caused me to down shift to 1st as the engine repeatedly cried out, "ping". I kept imagining to myself, "If only I had a faster car with rock hard suspension, this would be so much fun!" It's not everyday that you get to drive in these elements. It felt like I had been shaken in a bottle.

Upon descending from the mountain top, everything up till this point felt like a struggle and finally as I tipped the scale, in came the rewards. I eased my grip, relaxed, descended, and looked at the world around me. It always amazes me how green Aomori gets. I recall my first impression arriving in Aomori as being so damn green! Everything felt like it has added doses of life to it. The trees blew in the wind with extra swagger. The wild brush even bush'ier. The flowers more vibrant in color. I never have felt the world so alive. It was beautiful.

I was meeting up with a friend whom I met snowboarding that lived in Kuroishi. He said he hasn't been to the festival in a while and wouldn't mind going with me. Kenichi and I have always gotten along since day 1 and it was nice to see him in his home environment for a change. He took us where all the floats were gathering and as we approached closer, the drums could easily be heard. Arriving at our destination, the crowd was also gathering. The countless footsteps launched a small dust cloud to fill the area as we proceeded to cut across the showroom floor full of colorful floats. The excitement was there. You could feel everyone's anticipation for the show to begin. I observed the scenery and noticed the different array of Japanese festival art. Kuroishi had a uniqueness to it because of its' size. Smaller in scale, one would automatically assume it was far below the level of Aomori's Nebuta. However, the size created an intimacy that was in some ways more appealing. I was literally right there next to the paraders and dancers that passed along with each float. The lights lit the faces of babies and young ones observing from the sidewalk that reflected a magical glow. It was in its' very own way, beautiful.