This morning we had planned to go to a market for breakfast. But Kaoru did a last minute check and to her dismay, found it was closed. So it was time for Plan B; she found a restaurant that did (rice ball triangles?). We had to wait for about 30 minutes to get a table, so most of our free time for the morning disappeared.

We went back to the hotel for teeth and checkout (I filled my camel back with ice), and then we caught a 10.30 Shinkansen to Akita, which took about 2 hours. Kaoru’s friend, Kaioko (who came to our wedding), and her husband (Mitchuyou) and Son (Soto) met us at the station. They walked us to our hotel and waited while we checked in, and then we went for some food – a very scenic walk though, through a part of the evening festival. Michael and I both had a turn at balancing some mini Kanto poles.

Eventually we arrived at a Soba restaurant. But there was a line, so we put our name on the door and waited. Mitchuyou and Soto took us gaigin to an ice cream stand to buy some ice cream. Eventually we were “top of hte line” nad seated in a beautiful room. Unfortunately one of the sauces for the Soba was a nut-based sauce so I had to have Tempura instead. It was a lovely meal, while we tried to work through language barriers and enjoy ourselves.

After lunch (which was about 3.30) we went back to the hotel, via some shopping at a local souvenier shop. Kaioko, Mitchuyou and Soto went home, and we all had a little sleep. We all woke up again a bit before 5, so met up and went to a beer hall to sample some beers and have a little bit of food to keep us going. Just after 6, Kaioko and Soto met us, and we walked towards the main street, to see the night parade. Again, the place was extremely crowded and it wasn’t easy to find somewhere to watch the events. And again, a police officer decided Michael was the line again. We watched the procession of people carrying massive lantern poles made of bamboo, listening to the drumming and fluting of local songs. Another policeman didn’t like where we were standing though, and after a bit of a stand-off, we decided to move along. However, we hadn’t gone far when one of the pole lanterns came crashing dwon to within a few metres of us! WHilst there was a panic, nobody got hurt, so they must be light enough, even though they are made of hard bamboo. It did cause some people to move though, and suddenly there wsa room for the 6 of us!

We watched the parade for another 10 minutes or so, and then decided to go and get some food. So we went to the pop-up food stalls, where there were tables in the middle. One by one we managed to get chairs and ended up with a table of our own. So we got assorted food, and also some beer, where I had a delicious DDH Hazy. We could still hear and see the festival, but were certainly a lot safer, and it was much less crowded too.

Eventually it was time to call it a night, so we headed back to our hotel. Along the way (almost at the hotel) we found the Seibu pole lantern’s “base”, where they set up and did a private show to those lucky people who were walking past. So we took a seat on the floor, grabbed our cameras and enjoyed a bit more of a show. And again, as people were getting more and more confident, there was an incident where the pole was dropped, and missed us by a matter of a couple of metres. As they lifted the pole up, there was a man sitting on the floor with a grin on his face, so again, it mustn’t be as bad as it looks – even though they can weigh 50 kgs. After a bit more watching we went to Lawsons for some late night treats, and called it a day.