We are getting close to the end of the Misawa City Festival Parade of 1988; we just have a few more photos to go. After that, we’ll be moving on to more skiing pics and some interesting shots of the Sapporo Snow Festival — as soon as I can get those negatives scanned in.
I think all those flowers were paper.
Ring around the rosy
Lots of beer and sake had been downed by this time in the day. Kanpai!
Do I spy a samurai riding a peacock?
Who lives in a bento box under the sea?
The white crane, or hakutsuru, is a big deal in Japan, and it appears to be also in America, as evidenced by the popularity of Hakutsuru sake.
- Hungry, anyone?
That looks strangely like something I had on my plate at a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel).
- Does the name “Nemo” come to mind?
I think of “Nemo” when I see this guy riding the turtle, and I don’t mean “Captain” Nemo.
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Oh, behave!
The Japanese Austin Powers, no doubt.
Samurai in the snow
A little snow never slowed down a good samurai. Samurai, by the way, is either singular or plural in Japanese, depending on the context, as are all Japanese nouns. Misawa gets a lot of snow, but it was too warm to keep snow on this float for more than a minute, so this stuff is obviously fake.
Looks like a dragonslayer
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One more angle of the "Christmas" float
Looks like they enlisted people from the sidelines to push this hulk
These guys look tired
 Now, where’s the kitchen sink?
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- Check out the damage on this one
And check out the blocky-looking horses in relief on the side and back. They’re called Yawata Uma, or the Hachinohe Horse. Hachinohe is the closest rather large city to Misawa, and the Yawata Uma (uma = horse) is the symbol of Hachinohe. You can buy the Yawata Uma in many sizes, and it is a popular souvenir. One version has no paint at all and is used as a going-away present. It is normally covered with the signatures of the friends or coworkers who are presenting the gift.Â
Another water battle
I just loved the way these floats represented the water
Is that a samurai, or Vulcan?
