Magra, Hayden, Katie, and I tried to go to the Kunizakai Festival this year in Lake Towada. Next year, I plan on making it a date night with Jim so we can actually experience it! This festival combines the major summer festivals from three prefectures around us: Aomori (ours), Akita (west of us) and Iwate (south of us). Everyone merges and each prefecture has a really unique and famous contribution to this big celebration. At night it is spectacular (not that I would know because we didn't stay long) with lots of lights on floats and men balancing crazy heights of lit lanterns, traditional music and dancing. For more information, click
here.
We went up in the early afternoon and had a great time around the lake.
And then there were lots of these walking around:
And more, scarier looking costumes - regional costumes - that totally freaked my kids out! So, instead of forcing them to watch dancers and performers that would be sure to give them nightmares, we bailed.
And praise God we did! We had a chance to stop into Oirase Gorge on the way home (I can't believe I had never been there before!). Just look at how beautiful this place is:
