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It's not everyday you see a halberdier...

At first, I saw these guys in hopi coats unloading a bamboo ladder. But I got that weird feeling like something was about to happen, so I went by to check it out. As I got closer, there were probably about 300 people in full Japanese medieval regalia. For the most part, they were really high quality costumes, close to museum quality. As Rich looked up for me, November 3 is called Culture Day in Japan.

By the way, the pictures look sorta overexposed because I didn't notice that I hadn't changed the settings on the camera from earlier.

halberdier.jpg

This little guy especially, has the best expressions.

horsies.jpg


It was as if a parade was being held just for me, in honor of my first full day in Japan.

groupphoto.jpg


Insert cheap line here about Japan being a complex juxtaposition of modern and ancient blahblahblah...

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The most feared of the warriors were the personal pan pizza delivery battalion.

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Also feared to a lesser extent were the guys with the velvet covered sticks.

velvetsticks.jpg


Uhhhhh...words...

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It took a long time for the parade to actually begin. Note the drum in the outfit, presumably used to sound the triplets of a horse's gait. These guys ran out of enthusiasm before the parade started, so no cloppity-clop from them.

horsiebreak.jpg


At this point, I switched to a video camera, and someday I'll capture it and put it here. It's pretty cool.

It was such a surreal thing to observe. No one ever challenged me or talked to me. People were playing tennis next to them. They all just acted like they do this all the time. I can just hear, "Honey, I can't pick up the kids from judo practice because I have a historical reenactment today." "Again?!?"

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