So. We all know by now that I’m terrible at getting photos up and writing about things soon after they happen. Let’s accept that and move on to the “better late than never” philosophy.
That said, welcome to the rural town of Sakuma.
Near the end of this summer, my friend Gillian, who is in her third year here, invited a few of us up to the rural town she used to work in called Sakuma, for their biggest annual festival of the year: the Misakubo Disguise Festival.
Before I get too in depth in explanation here, I’m going to recommend you view the whole set in order if you want a narrative of the experience. The photos really tell it better than I can in words.
The official “point” of the festival is like any other–to celebrate the town. But this particular one has a unique flavor: each of the four neighborhoods in the town dress up in costumes, and do skits to try and win sort of the “Town Cup.” Or something like that.
But really, as Gillian explained while we were there, this town is in the middle of nowhere. It’s flanked by mountains on all sides, an quite difficult to get to. All the preparation that goes into pulling something like off takes months, and that’s the real point–to give the people who live there something to do, an excuse to get together and drink every night while planning, rehearsing, and making costumes, and then (apparently) they continue to celebrate [party] for six weeks after it’s done.
At any rate, we all piled up in a bus stuffed with old people. I for one was extremely hung over that morning, and had to sit on the floor of the bus for the hour and a half ride. But it didn’t matter, because I was doomed to be drinking again within half an hour of arriving.
The first day, we mostly drank and walked around in the afternoon. This guy took a liking to us, and shuffled us around to several families partying around town, all whom gave us booze:
Mary Beth, “the guy,” and Gillian.
A lot of free beer.
Also free sake.
It didn’t take long for us to figure out that we were the only foreigners in the whole damn town.
Yes, these people were photographing us.
Just as much as we were interested in this strange little town, the townspeople were fascinated with us. I’m pretty sure that’s why we got so much free booze and attention. Everyone wanted a photograph, a conversation, or a wave.
This kind of behavior continued well into the night. We got to help pull the floats, talked to many families, and saw a lot of great costumes. I’ll put a couple photos here, but click the link above to the whole set to really get the feel of it.
There really are lot of good ones, and there’s a narrative if you view them in order.
The second day was the big skit day, and Gillian roped the rest of into actually participating. We awoke at the crak of dawn with some sort of large, wake-up explosion that went off around 6AM. The mood of the second day can be summarized in this:
Photo by Mary Beth Bardin
That photo was taken around 10:00 AM. I was hammered. I’m not sure I had a choice, in any of it. But damn, we had fun.
Again, for the whole story (and after that photo, you know you want it), look at the photos in order. Because I know we’re all lazy, here’s that link one more time:
FULL SET OF MISAKUBO DISGUISE FESTIVAL PHOTOS
Near the end, when we were up the float, being wheeled around town on the float, Mary Beth turned to me and said, “You know, since I’ve been in japan, there’s been several times when I’ve felt like we were gaijin on parade…but not really until just now.”
It was certainly a unique experience, and a nice taste of culture from people who rarely saw anyone outside their own town, let alone their own country. It was a blast. :)
