I traveled to Morioka on Thursday to get permission to work on my current visa, which I couldn't otherwise do (it's the dreaded "dependent visa"). I *heart* the Morioka immigration office -- the staff was cordial, informative, and had me out the door with my permit in about 20 minutes, if that. So I took the rest of the afternoon to poke around a bit, beginning with lunch at the 'Bucks. Hey, I had to investigate the possibility of cupcakes (denied!).

If the one especially posh street I traversed is representative of the city, Morioka is all about food, art, spas/salons, and fashion. I am a fan. Had I worn a hat, I might have tossed it in the air, I liked Morioka so much. As it was, I refrained from tossing the Weitzmans in the air for fear that their 3" heels would've taken someone's eye out had I failed to catch them.



This monument is located in Iwate Park, in the middle of Morioka. Iwate Park is built on the ruins of the former Morioka Castle; its height allows for beautiful views of the city against its mountain backdrop.

I hope I'm not stepping on any, ahem, non-densha otaku toes by posting this:



This little guy appears on some of the East Japan Railway Company's (or JR East) trains. I think he's adorable.

The festival came to an end Monday night with a two-hour fireworks display. To Americans, that sounds excessive, but it was actually quite nice. It wasn't a continuous barrage of explosions; instead, it was a series of vignettes, sometimes just a single firework and sometimes a grouping, separated by short breaks (up to several minutes).

The relaxed pace and long show meant that families set up picnics where they could hang out, chat, eat, drink, and watch the fireworks together, and we did, too. Unfortunately, since we didn't know exactly where they would be launching, we set up our picnic where a utility pole would be exactly in the way. Oh well, next year we'll know!

Onikenbai isn't the only dance performed during Michinoku Geinou Matsuri, but it is the most famous.

The first big event of Michinoku Geinou Matsuri is the Mikoshi Parade. More than one thousand children march, chant, and whistle in groups while hoisting their hand-made mikoshi, or demon heads. The amount of energy on display was astonishing.

In final preparations for the opening of Michinoku Geinou Matsuri, various performance groups were unloading their large demon head creations from the world's tiniest trucks. Later they would march, chant, whistle, and hoist the demon heads up and down with great enthusiasm. Some of the demon heads looked quite fierce, others were rather abstract, and then there was this cartoony guy.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think he is Oni Marukun, a character created 13 years ago to promote a school. After the school opened, he was adopted as a mascot by the Kitakami tourism bureau because his design is based on the city's Onikenbai sword dance demons.

Lanterns? Check. Banners? Check. Rented flood lights to illuminate the dancing demons at night? Check.

Michinoku Geinou Matsuri ("North Country Performing Arts Festival") starts tomorrow. This is a major festival of Kitakami, and is famous for Onikenbai, the "Demon Sword Dance". The three-day festival officially starts tomorrow, and ends Monday with a grand fireworks display.

Our previous spider has moved on, and this one came to replace it. We discovered it in the morning, which is a bit more auspicious. (Later, I saw it again at night. This spider seems to offer 24-hour service.)

Its web is really quite distinctive, too - the center is kind of fluffy, with a vertical "ladder" of thick webbing extending above and below it.

This is in Mizusawa, a small town south of Kitakami. And no, we didn't stop here for lunch.