My town has a huge festival at the end of every July, called Soma Nomaoi. What it`s mostly about seems to be samurai, and horses. Overall, I took almost 400 pictures, so here, I`ve only picked some to show.
Saturday, I went with my neighbors to see the parade. The details on the costumes are amazing!
After the parade, there was supposed to be a horse race, so we went to see that. The weather was rather rainy though, so the schedule kept changing a bit. In the end, there was only one race.
That night, there was a festival! I only got one picture of it, but I also got a picture of the drink I bought–which I totally only bought because it lit up and came in an interesting container, and then there`s the power ranger thing A-kun (the neighbor`s kid) gave me.
Sunday, there was another parade. It seemed pretty much the same as the first, but the weather was better, so my pictures came out better. It was really hot though, so I felt bad for the horses. And too, they were all slipping a little on the cement. It wasn`t just adults dressed up and riding either. Some of them were kids that looked like they were Jr. High age or so. And a couple were elementary school or younger!
During the parade, they played those conch shells that some of them were holding.
After that, we went back to the field from the day before–now there were actually going to be races.
After that, there was a `battle`. I`m not quite sure what the rules were, but what was apparent was that first, they set off fireworks, then, from the fireworks, a ribbon thing dropped down, and whoever got it first was the winner.
At one stand for Nomaoi, I found cute keychains. And with one keychain I won a bag as well! Inside the bag were snacks, which made it even better.
There were supposed to be fireworks that night, but they were cancelled due to rain, so the neighbors and I did small fireworks instead. Something I`ve never done before because I`m from Massachusetts and they`re illegal there. 😛
I tried to take a video, but it somehow ended up sideways. >.>
I also got a wicked sunburn, but overall it was a fun weekend. ^_^