What are the kids doing now?

Something I never did at school, I know that. My students are in the middle of preparing for their own little version of the Neputa festival parade. All high school kids have what is called Bunka sai 文化祭。Bunka sai translates as 'cultural festival' and as far as I know they do it every year around this time. If you don't know anything about Neputa/Nebuta, then I recommend this website as an intro. In fact, the Hirosaki Neputa festival is a bit different, but in my mind it's the best. Well, Goshogawara's Standing Nebuta is also good, but that's a different town.

This is what a young girl was painting in the corridor today, and it's a typical design of the Hirosaki Neputa floats:



It gets a lot more colourful than this, and when everything's all done and finished I'll post more pics.

This next shot shows all the students building the bases of the floats. They have to build them all from scratch so there's a lot of work to do. If only they draughted me in as chief carpenter, I'd be in my element. I wouldn't know what the hell to do, but I'd sure love bossing the kids around.



Next, 生徒は坊主が好き: The students love a short haircut.



I've had a lot of "Can I touch?" requests recently.

And finally, just a colourful shot of the workplace.



When the Neputa season gets into full swing, and if I've got time between my mega-busy schedule next week, I'll try to get some shots of the city Neputa preparations.