Hanagasa Festival

It's my first time celebrating summer festival in Japan. Since I live in Yamagata, its nightlife is basically nothing except the izakayas (drinking bar).  

However, when the Hanagasa Festival's season is coming suddenly every road is lit up during the night, food trucks everywhere and you can hear folk songs being played all the time for almost a week. Hanagasa Festival is basically a festival where groups of people are dancing the Hanagasa Dance, with a beautiful flowery hat. For the first time ever I saw a lot of people gathered at the roadside to enjoy the festival. That's when I thought "oh, Yamagata does actually have a lot of people than I expected".  

Though I didn't have the chance to join the dance, by just coming and enjoying the festival itself I got to enjoy what the real Japanese festival feels like. Looking forward to next year's festival!