Sorry for the lack of posts last week, I was busy this past weekend with the Aoba Matsuri (Japanese for Aoba Festival). Spent 16 hours in the Summery sun this past weekend! The weather is brilliant!
So, the Aoba Matsuri is a festival special to Sendai that celebrates the anniversary of Date Masamune's death. For those of you who do not know, Date Masamune is a famous lord from the Sengoku Period of Japan. The history of this festival is quite complex and verbose, so I will link you to a great page explaining it! http://www.aoba-matsuri.com/english/e-history.html
I was amazed by the multiple huge colorful and wooden floats, still powered to this day by men pulling it. Put this in the backdrop of many people dancing the spectacular Sparrow dance in colorful clothing with powerful drums and that only scratches the surface of how fun the festival was!
I took over 1000 pictures, so I will be needing some time to get them online, but here is a fun picture of me with the Date Bushotai, a professional acting group charged by the Sendai Tourist Bureau to welcome visitors close and far to Sendai!
