Aomori: Rassera … Rassera

After a fun day of exploring Hirosaki and a forty-five-minute ride on a local train, we arrived back in Aomori a little after 6:00p.

I’m going to segue here before I wrap up the story of our day to write about an encounter as we were leaving the train station. To me, it represents the friendly, kind, and helpful Japanese people we’ve been encountering everywhere we go.

We were just about to leave Aomori Station when a young woman who looked a little familiar approached me. She asked if we had been to Hirosaki Park today … to which I responded that we had. She then said, “You ate at the Butokuden Rest House, didn’t you?” We certainly had. She smiled and introduced herself as the cashier who took our order. She had been masked then, so we had not seen her full face, but of course, she had seen our faces and recognized us. Saying that she hoped we had enjoyed our visit to the park and our meal, she bid us farewell and went her own way. Very sweet.

Back to the rest of the day’s story.

Since we had not managed to visit the museum at Nebuta Village in Hirosaki, we hurried over to the Nebuta no Ie WA-RASSE Museum near Aomori Station. The museum is associated with the Nebuta Festival held in the Aomori Prefecture annually. The short story is that the festival was born of a tradition for warding off “sleep demons” that would otherwise induce drowsiness and slow down the summer farming season. Costumed dancers accompany the floats, chanting “rassera” to call visitors to watch and join in the festivities.

We had a mere 30 minutes to wander around before the museum closed at 7:00p. I figured we could always look up more information about the festival and the museum on the internet. So, we focused on taking photos of the four full-sized floats on display from last August’s festival and the Nebuta faces overlooking the exhibit hall. The floats were amazing and the price of admission was worth it to see them in person.

Since Insignia was in port until 11:00p, we were determined to eat ashore tonight.
We were on our way to a ramen shop when we walked by a restaurant filled with people. All locals. All having a good time.

All of the signage was in Japanese, but using Google Translate, we figured out that the name of the place was Daifukumaru … which translates as Good Luck Circle. Mui checked the online reviews and found that the restaurant was well-rated. So, we went in and were seated immediately … the only western people in the place.

The young man who escorted us to our table gave us a menu … thankfully with English subtitles … and with pictures. After perusing the options, I ordered the deep fried shrimp … tender and crispy; Mui ordered the sashimi tuna, and the grilled salmon … both of which he deemed excellent; and we shared an order of sweet corn tempura from the “most popular” menu … delicious. We washed it all down with a local beer.

We had barely placed our order when a single, loud drum beat had us jumping in our seats. Turns out that there was a performance to enjoy. Actually two. But the first one is the one that I feel was connected to the museum we had visited.

A brief segue to explain the WA-RASSE portion of the name of the museum is warranted, I believe. The “WA” is added to the “RASSE” of the festival’s chant (rassera), and represents the “wa” from laughter (warai) and the bonds (wa) that are formed between people through their involvement in the Nebuta Festival. In our case, the laughter and bonds were formed out of the joint experience we had as customers at the restaurant.

After the first beat of the big drum — known as an odaiko — the waiters put on short kimono style jackets and to the accompaniment of more drum beats and brass chimes, they began dancing around the tables, chanting “rassera.” I had the distinct feeling that this was a version of the ritual festival dance to keep away the sleep demons.

The chanting and dancing were followed by a musical performance by a man who played a stringed instrument as the patrons returned to eating their meal.

We had just finished our dinner when the drumming and chanting part of the evening was repeated. This time, one of the waiters came to our table with a glittery hat that she insisted I wear and join in the chanting and dancing. I accepted the challenge and proceeded to chant with the best of them!

Totally enthralled with our dinner experience, we left the restaurant around 8:30p … waving and smiling to everyone who was bidding us “oyasumi” (good night).

The streets were dark and deserted. The wind … well, bracing would be a good description. Cutting through Aoi Umi Park like we did this morning, we made our way back to the ship.

What a delightful way to end our day.Read more