Rokkon - The 6 Souls Festival

After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, the 6 prefectures of Tohoku came together in a large festival to encourage and celebrate their resilience. The festival is a combination of the major festivals from each prefecture and has been held in a different Tohoku prefecture each year. This year was Aomori Prefecture's turn to host. The event was extremely hyped up as a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we were determined to go as a way to knock so many festivals off our bucket list (including the Aomori Nebuta and Akita Lantern Festivals). Unfortunately the festival was held the same weekend that Seth ended up flying back to the States. I decided to brave the festival on my own anyway. I figured if I rode the train I wouldn't have to deal with crazy parking and traffic. It would be fine.

We got on the train in Misawa only to find that the seats on the train were all already full. A nice couple gave up their seats and the kids and I crammed into the tiny space, gearing up for the 1 1/2 hour long train ride to Aomori. Instead of being squashed the kids opted to take turns sitting on the floor.

The train continued to fill up and eventually I had them all sit next to each other instead of be squished on the floor. As we go closer to the festival the train became so full that I literally don't think we could have squeezed in another person. This probably should have been my first indicator that the festival might not be all we had hoped and wished for.

It sure was nice to finally get off that crowded train and out into the fresh air.

We walked along this boardwalk along the ocean and enjoyed the fresh breeze and the beautiful view. There is a decommissioned ferry that you can tour. Simeon really wanted to do this but we didn't have a lot of time before the parade started.

After picking up some food we headed in the direction of the parade. I think we would have had to pick out a spot several hours in advance in order to find good seats. Unfortunately we didn't and it quickly became apparent that there was no way we were going to get anywhere near it. We settled for a small park in front of this large Buddhist temple.

This is as close as we were able to get to the parade:

We could have crossed into that parking lot if we didn't have a stroller (holding a sleeping Caleb). The park had a railed fence so I was at least able to sit instead of stand. And I figured it would be nice for the kids to play if they got bored. I also figured that we'd be able to see the floats fine once they came out, so there was no need to be any closer. Sadly there were only three floats in the parade, at the very end. Not what I was expecting at all after going to the Hachinohe parade, which was 3 hours of almost solid floats.

It's sad to say, but the highlight of our trip was this really amazing (and expensive) muffin:

Fortunately we were able to meet up with some friends at the park. When we saw the long line going back into the train station they split my family up amongst their cars and gave us a ride home. Thank goodness for kind friends.
So in the end we still need to return to Aomori for the Nebuta Festival. I also look forward to exploring the area more, because we saw a lot of fun things that we would like to do (more fun that listening to a parade that you can't see).