Akita Kanto Festival

The summer festivals have started, which tend to be much more boisterous and flashy than the others throughout the year. A majority of these festivals have large illuminated paper floats called either nebuta or neputa. There is usually a lot of dancing, chanting, and singing at these festivals.

This is the route we took to get to Akita.

The most famous of these festivals in our area is in Aomori City, the large town about an hour to the northwest of us. Unfortunately, we did not make it to this festival because we chose to go off the beaten path a little and journey to the Akita Prefecture for the Kanto Festival.

Downtown Akita-shi at the start of the festival

We had a hard time deciding whether or not to go to this festival because it was supposed to be a pretty long drive (over four hours) and the tolls were a little on the steep end.  I'm so glad we decided to go because it was one of the most unique festivals we've been to so far.

The Kanto Festival is held in the hopes of having a good harvest in the fall. The kanto pole is between 16 and 39 feet long and holds either 24 or 46 lanterns. At the top of the kanto is the gohei, a paper offering used in Shinto festivals. Those entrusted with carrying the kanto are to make sure the gohei does not fall, which is no easy task. Additionally, they balance the poles on their foreheads and backs.

Balancing...balancing...

During the festival, the crowd chants "Dokkoisho, dokkoisho!" which loosely translates to "Heave ho!" to encourage the participants.

Resting

Unfortunately, or awesomely, a few fell while we were there. We didn't get it on camera, but the whole crowd gasps and it knocks the lights out in the lanterns. We did get a picture of one that almost fell, but that guy ran like hell to keep it going.

Easy does it.

After the festival, we got some awesome food, like a hot dog on a stick wrapped with a crescent potato thing. It was amazing. And we drank a ton of chu-his, which are basically the stronger, man version of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

My friends and me waiting for food and trying to blend in.

We had so much fun at this festival and I'm so happy we bit the bullet and decided to go!