August 2008: Hachinohe, Japan.

Still in the Tohoku (East-northern) region. Hachinohe is the northern end of the line for the Shinkashen (at least for now.)
The Matsuri here is billed as one of the 4 big summer matsuri in Tohoko, the other being the Nebuta, Kanto and another which name I can't recalled.
Having seen the Nebuta and Kanto in a previous summer, I was having high expectation for this.
Having arrived on a hot afternoon, I got to check out floats gathering at the starting point for the matsuri. I looks much like most other matsuri you will
encounter in Japan - a community effort. Floats from each of the different neighborhoods in Hachinohe were being driving to the gathering area, adults were
helping out the kids with the customs. Others were posing for group photoes in front our their floats. Winning floats came with banner announcing what prize the float
had won for the year, indications of the amount of pride each nieghborhood held for their very own creation. And as the floats made their ways down the streets, residents
and shopowners on the side of streets came out of their shop/home to cheer participants who happens to be their acquaintants, many times with a plastic cup of cold beer.
Hachinohe also has a local line running on the Japanese Pacific coast, quite similar to the one running in Sri Lanka from Colombo to Galle.
It was a quiet line when I took it. Alight at a quiet stops and you can proceed to take a long stroll along well-marked path that takes one
from forest to beaches. The station may be small, but it has all the information a visitor may need: train timetable, number to call in emergncy,
map to the nearest bus station should the train fail to make it to the station, and timetable for that bus.