Last year the Yakumo Lantern Parade Festival was held on the first weekend after my arrival in Japan.  The initial shock of the realisation of just how small my ‘small town’ was had started to fade and I was getting accustomed to the town and the climate.  My supervisor told me that there was a big festival with lanterns on the weekend, and that I should attend and participate.  I didn’t really understand what was going to be happening at this festival, but had been told to show up to the Board of Education at 5pm for the pre-event enkai.  What awaited me was all the ‘enkai bento food’ and ‘one cup sake’ that I could consume.  However, I soon learned that I couldn’t consume that much, especially of that cheap, nasty sake.  But, it was certainly one way to make an initial impression on my co-workers.

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 It is difficult to describe the festival in a way that gives it the justice that it deserves, but I’ll try.  The main focus of this event is the procession of large illuminated floats – in many shapes and sizes – through the main street of Yakumo.  There are simple fan-shaped lanterns with intricate illuminated paintings through to mechanised, three-dimensional steam-breathing dragon floats.

Intertwined within these lanterns in the procession are giant taiko drums and children in crazy costumes dancing to J-Pop, all at volumes that are quite likely dangerous, but no one seems to care.  There is so much colour and movement and sounds happening at once, that it is a little hard at times to take it all in.  There are prizes for the floats and for the dancers, and the effort that goes into both is quite remarkable.

The festival is only one of three in Hokkaido, the other two being in Shari-machi and Numata-machi. Yakumo’s festival is spread over two nights, the first night the procession travels from the library in the south of Yakumo towards the town office in the north.  The next night the procession picks up from the town office and travels back south, down the same main street in town.  The festival began in 1972, and has been an annual event since.

At the end of the second night, the floats and the dancers – and what felt like all 20,000 of Yakumo’s inhabitants – gathered in front of the train station for the final performance: dancing, drumming and this town’s biggest party of the year.

As you might expect, I’m eagerly awaiting this year’s festival, which is July 3rd and 4th.

Ross