Sister City Special

Akita, Japan is the sister city to Soldotna, the town closest to where we live. This weekend is Progress Days in Soldotna, an annual celebration of whatever is or was happening here. 
A big parade (big for us) starts the Saturday festivities, and this year we enjoyed the very special treat from Akita. A group of Kanto Lantern Dancers and the Mayor and his wife of Akita traveled here and performed during the parade and at the park.
A truck with drum and flute players (extra #1) precedes the dancers, who are carrying large bamboo poles with paper lanterns hanging (extra #2)
The men stop, raise the poles, and add 3 or more extensions, making the whole lantern display quite tall. One man then balances this on various parts of his body - forehead, shoulder, neck, or back. It is so awesome.
This is part of a traditional festival in a region of Japan, and there it takes place at night with all the lanterns lit. You can imagine how spectacular this is, and if you want to see photos of it you can google "Kanto lantern dancers." 
How wonderful it was for us to experience their tradition, and although it was not at night, you can see that the weather was perfect. 

You can see that the weather was perfect, as it was for all three days.