Kokura Wasshoi Summer Festival 2012 (第２５回わっしょい百万夏祭り) - Part 1

4th August 2012

My colleague told me about this Summer Festival in Kokura, after reading about it, I decided to go with him. We took normal JR train from Nakatsu to Kokura, it took around 1 hour. Once reached the Kokura Station 小倉駅, there were performances related to this festival. The dances were very energetic, fun and with some Japanese traditional moves. I like the one with children, very cute! After that, we left the train station and went to the designated area. There were more performances. It was very happening with all the people and stalls selling all sorts of things. 

The afternoon performances (わっしょいＹＯＳＡＫＯＩ北九州２０１２)

The afternoon performances in Komoji Dori (わっしょいＹＯＳＡＫＯＩ北九州２０１２)

After that, we went to Komoji Dori 小文字通り for the parade. It was fun looking at all those performances. The teams came from all walks of life, some were university students, dance school, bank employees, residents association, and so on. They were very proud of it, and some even brought along young children.

performances before welcome parade

The welcome parade started at 17:30. Another colourful event. The teams included Fukuoka Prefecture Police, Kitakyushu Fire-fighters band, Fukuoka Bank, tourism ambassadors from all over Kyushu, Kumamon (I like this!), JR Kyushu, Nishitetsu floats, etc. The one that gave the most impression was from a shipping company (鶴丸海運), their parade included a truck, when reached the main stage, the sides open, and balloons were released into the air, it was so magnificent! 

Welcome Parade (balloons act from 鶴丸海運)

Welcome Parade from Police and Fire-fighters 

Welcome Parade (The Miss Tourism Ambassadors with Kumamon at the center!)

Welcome Parade (the eco green car)

Welcome Parade

Welcome Parade

Other than that, I was surprised that Bridgestone is a Japanese company, I always thought that it is a European company. Their parade included a very huge tyre (they claimed it was the world biggest).

The world's biggest type from Bridgestone (Made in Kitakyushu)

Welcome Parade

After the welcome parade, came the highlight of this summer festival, 夏祭り大集合. It features floats from many places. The floats 山車 were very special. Even Nebuta ねぶた was there. Below shows the collages of the floats, it was so colourful! A lot of traditional festivals, arts are slowly disappearing in many places. It was very nice of them to continue this kind of traditional festivals. 

Parade with floats 山車

夏祭り大集合 - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合 (Nebuta - however, this has a modern twist to it, hahaha!)

夏祭り大集合 (Nebuta ねぶた)

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - 山車

夏祭り大集合  - audiences on stage (the seats were not free!)

They even built a float 山車 directly on the road. I think they practised before, they did not take long to build that. After they built it, the float joined the parade too.

building a float from scratch

Wow, this was really a feast to the eyes. I was glad that I came to this festival! Finally, a video on the parade. A team modified their float, it was very innovative, the floats included some dragon figurines, so they installed exhaust pipe and made the fumes came out from the dragon's mouth. Plus, they even used fireworks. So, from afar, it looked like a dragon throwing a tantrum. Hahaha, so creative!

After the parade finished, me and my colleague went back to Nakatsu by train. It was so packed! Full of people going back from the Summer Festival.