Aomori Nebuta Festival

I'm sorry to this late post, due to our relocation/moving stuff I was too busy to post and update my blog. We left Misawa, Japan already but I will continue to post pictures which I missed during my stay in Japan and I will still post my travel photos wherever I maybe ;-). Sayonara Misawa, I will miss Japan so much!!!
We left Japan, Sept. 13, 2010. My travelog continues......

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August 7, 2010 Aomori Nebuta Festival- it was indeed fully packed with people and turps (hehehe), we couldn't find a place to sit, the people reserved their spots by laying down their turps on the ground. We arrived at the ASPAM place about 3pm just right after the Nebuta parade. We missed the parade so we decided to stay to wait for the 2 hour fireworks which started at 7pm.
The parade is held every year from August 2 to August 7, where the floats are carried through the city during the evening from August 2-6, and during the daytime on August 7. A two- hour fireworks show is held on the evening of the final day while the float is carried into the sea.
Due to overwhelming people who watched this festival we didn't even get to see the floats on the water and we left after an hour of fireworks (around 8pm) just to avoid the traffic jam and to catch the train before its last trip. I didn't get to take pictures of the floats during night time so all my pictures were taken after the parade where the floats were parked in their own hangar (or whatever you called that floats parking spots hehehe).
I would suggest that you should see this festival during Aug 2 to 6 to avoid the crowd and not during the last day, well if you don't want to see the fireworks but if you want to see it better bring your own turps or chairs and you have to be there early in the morning.

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Aomori Nebuta Festival is a Japanese summer festival that takes place in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The festival is the most popular tourists attraction of any of the country's nebuta festivals.
According to wikipedia, "Nebuta" refers to the float of a brave warrior-figure which is carried through the center of the city, while dancers wearing a unique type of costume called haneto (ハネト^?) prance around in time with the chant Rasserā (ラッセラー^?). In the local dialect, participation in the festival is inquired using the adjective haneru (ハネル^?, ex. "今日もハネル?" or "Are you going to haneru today?"), which was derived from the Japanese spelling of the haneto costume and the adjective haneru (跳ねる^?, "bounce").

Yokohama City, Japan

Landmark Tower, tallest building in Japan

Cosmo World Ferris Wheel

Roller Coaster Display between Land Mark Tower and Queen's Square Mall

Snoopy Town

Pokemon Center

Disney Store

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Yokohama is the second largest city of Japan. It's about 40 minute trip from New Sanno Hotel (where we stayed during our trip in Tokyo) by train plus walk is almost an hour trip then ;-)

We had a short time walking around Landmark Tower and Queens Square and didn't have the chance to go to observation deck and other nice places nearby. My daughter had enjoyed the mall when we found out that they have sanrio, pokemon center, disney store and snoopy town. IAnd we didn't even go to the ferris wheel since we already tried the Odaiba one ;-P

By the way, the Cosmo World Clock (which can be seen on the ferris wheel itself) is the world's largest clock (wow!).

When Cosmo World first opened in 1989, it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel.

The current record holder of the largest ferris wheel is the 165-meter (541 ft) Singapore Flyer, which opened to the public in March 2008, which by the way I saw that too last year when we went to Singapore.

Odaiba, Tokyo

Palette Town

Daikanransha Ferris Wheel (115m ~ 317ft tall)

Another shot

Taken from the ferris wheel

Another view from the ferris wheel

Sumida Boat Cruise- we sat at the top deck of this boat

Sumida River overlooking Rainbow Bridge

From the boat's deck, over looking Fuji Television building and the pier

Asahi Beer Building

cute car

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Odaiba, Tokyo

Our second day trip in Tokyo- originally our itinerary was to go to Asakusa where we could see the huge Senso-ji Temple (and to shop at Nakamise shopping arcade hehehe) but I left my brochure at the hotel and we can't find the map to get to the temple. When we got off from the subway train I saw the Asahi Beer Building right across the subway train (so I took pictures hehehe) and saw the Sumida River Boat cruise...... At first we were standing at one corner and trying to figure out how to get a map but then we decided to go and check how much was the fare at the boat cruise and where the boat was leading to (since we don't know where to go now)..... but then the old man was telling us that the boat was leaving in couple of minutes. To make the story short, we didn't get to explore the Asakusa place and ended up taking the boat cruise going to Odaiba since we took the one way trip hehehe. It took us about an hour to get to Odaiba. But we had fun there!

These are the places we went in Odaiba:

- Decks shopping mall (this is where we ate lunch and my son played at the arcade); the Sega Joypolis is there too but we didn't try to get inside (each ride has fee)

- Palette Town - where we rode the Daikanransha Ferris Wheel, there is the Toyota Mega City too

**Note: It takes 16 minutes to take the ferris wheel ride.


Odaiba (お台場) is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area. Odaiba, along with Minato Mirai 21 in Yokohama, are two of the only places in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area where the seashore is accessible, and not blocked by industry and harbor areas. - Wikipedia

Tokyo Disneyland

Mickey Mouse Flower Arrangement at the main entrance

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

Toon Town

At Splash Mountain ride with cute Japanese girls

It's a Small World

Cute Japanese girls wearing the minnie mouse headbands at Critter Country

Cinderella's Castle

Toon Town

Toon Town

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TOKYO DISNEYLAND

Sorry for not updating my posts for the past few weeks, I was so busy lately I took vacation and we went to Tokyo 2 weeks ago.

I'm sharing my first batch of pictures in Tokyo Disneyland although this was my fourth day in Tokyo, I'm more excited to post these pictures here than any other places we've been to, well what can I say, it's the happiest place on earth! hehehe.

When we got there it was almost 1:30pm (because we re so tired walking around Asakusa and Odaiba before that day)and it was raining so hard. At first we were thinking of getting back to our hotel because of the heavy rain but then we decided to still try our luck. We even bought 4 umbrellas at the Maihama train station otherwise we would all be wet. Hmmm the price wasn't that expensive, 500 yen for each umbrella (~$5).

We first went to Tomorrow land, although it was raining hard, a lot of people were still waiting in line, it was a long line in every show and ride we saw. No more "fast pass" available.... that means we really have to fall in line. The first ride we went to was the Buzz Light year ride since I have a 9 year old son who loves Toy Story, we waited for an hour. I wasn't able to take some pictures in Tomorrwland because my camera will get wet and besides I'm carrying my umbrella and my handbag too hehehe. It was nice to see Japanese people wearing mickey/minnie mouse raincoats and mickey/minnie mouse headbands.

Around 4pm, the sun cooperated, it dried up the roads and we're enjoying the sun! I was able to take pictures after that hehehe.

We didn't try to go to any shows since we won't be able to understand them, they're in Japanese anyways hehehe. There was an electrical parade but they canceled the fireworks because of the weather, it was too cloudy though it didn't rain.

Enough of that pictures, I will post more, don't worry it won't take that long.

Chuson-ji Temple

Konjikido (Golden Hall)

Torii

Hondo (Main Hall)

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Chuson-ji Temple

Chuson-ji Temple is located in Hiraizumi. Iwate Prefecture, 2 hour and a half drive from Misawa. We went to this trip the same day when we went to Geibi Gorge (from my previous post).

At first, I thought Chuson-ji temple was just a one huge temple, but I was wrong the temple itself consists of halls, museums and other buildings which you can see on my above pictures.

The Golden Hall or Konjikido is the only remaining example of a building from the Fujiwara era which can be found in Chuson-ji Temple. The mummified remains of four generations of Fujiwara lords rest inside the daises.

The Main Hall (Hondo) is the center for services and rituals. Most of Buddhist services take place in the Main Hall.

Note: No cameras allowed inside the Main Hall and Golden Hall but you can check their website to see what's inside the hall, here it is:

http://www.chusonji.or.jp/guide/precincts/konjikido.html

Geibi Gorge

The cliff

Our boat

The bridge

Carps

The "wishing wall"

Geibi Gorge

I was so excited to post these pictures from the trip we had yesterday so I uploaded them and posted here now. It's really indeed amazing scenic views!!!

We went to Geibi Gorge or Geibikei in Iwate prefecture, it's about 4 hour-drive from Misawa. The trip was long but it's really worth to see these beautiful sceneries.

I enjoyed the boat ride, our boatman even sang the "song of Geibi" it's a folk song of Japan. Though I haven't understood any of the lyrics I enjoyed it hehehe. Our boatman is very friendly and accommodating he even let us paddle the boat with the long bamboo pole. My daughter and I tried it just for a pose on our camera hehehe. We even had a free foot spa, along the side of the falls. So hot but it's so relaxing.

The Geibi gorge is approximately 2 kilometers long with 100-meter precipitous cliffs.

Excerpt from the brochure:

"Geibi Gorge, where fantastically-shaped rock formations tower high above, and the lush greenery celebrates the glory of the seasons. Numbered one of the most picturesque spots in Japan, this beautiful gorge was carved from strata of limestone by the Satetsu River."