What do you think this photo shows? It's called a "Neputa". This is used at local summer festivals. The frame is made of wires and bamboo. Papers cover the frame, and then the design is painted on the surface. Some neputa are 22 meters high, 6 meters wide, and weigh 17 tons. All neputa have lights on them and look so vigorous. If you look at the picture carefully, you'll find a looped slope along the wall around the neputa. I visited the neputa museum which was built in Goshogawara City recently. A couple of neputa were exhibited in the musium. I saw a neputa live for the first time. It was the structure of the museum that I was surprised to see. It was like a secret base of "Mobile Suit Gundam". When I saw the neputa for the first time in the museum, I wondered how they put them into the museum. You can see the building at http://www.tachineputa.jp/top.html (sorry, it's in Japanese).
Lo and behold, one wall of the building moves and slides aside like a door. It's just like a secret base which you can see in an SF movie. The Neputa Festival in Aomori is very famous. There seems to be no power line on the road that the neputa would go on. I felt Aomorism.
(Vocabulary)
vigorous 〈活動などが〉活発な, 盛んな 〈人が〉元気な, たくましい, 〈植物が〉よく育つ
saw a neputa live 生で見る
Lo and behold 驚いたことに、驚くなかれ、これは驚いた、何ということか、そしてなんと、あれよという間に◆会話で相手の注意を引くために使われる
power line 電線 送電線
Aomorism 青森県民気質
(KW: 五所川原市 祭り ねぷた)
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