Of course I’m interested in watching the real Nebuta Festival (ねぶた祭り), but I’m the kind of person who’s a bit reluctant to go out in summer 1. So one option for people like me is to visit the Nebuta Museum instead in Aomori City 2. The plus side of visiting the museum compared to attending actual festival is that I can learn much more about the festival when the crowd is less. For sure the vibe will never be the same as the actual festival, but there’s always another time to visit Aomori again to see the amazing people handling the floating lanterns which can reach up to 5 meters in height and weigh up to 4 tons.
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) dance around in time with the chant Rasserā (ラッセラー) - shortened dialectal version of Irasshai, which indicates welcoming for visitors and customers to watch or join. Link ↩︎
The location of the Nebuta Museum WA RASSE (ねぶたの家 ワ･ラッセ). Link ↩︎