The first site that attracted me was the different floats and how interesting they each were. There were 7 community groups and each group had different themes and images.
Each group created float, which People in the community put a lot of time, effort and spirit into creating. The idea behind this reminds me of what I’ve read about Mardi Gras and Carnivale. people in the community put so much of their personals skills, time, passion and even their money into creating something interesting each year.
When ever we stopped to take a break I spent time looking at some of the Float details and thought about all the people must’ve put into it. Not just the time but the coming together and deciding what should be done, the themes, the colors etc. One can see beyond the local community cultural aspect and the personal artistic and community building aspects to festivals.
In the Iwate festival for the return journey – form the town hall to the shrine area, we pulled the float sometimes only a few meters at a time. Much like Festa di San Gennaro, people came out, watched from the sides and the group leaders went door to door. After talking to them, they often came page with “pledge sheets” with people or shop names on them and these were posted on the base of the float. 
Besides the memories, It is just interesting to me that despite having quite different religions, traditions and histories, we can finding common ideas and practices. There’s music, singing, dance and local food. And then are the floats with their community involved and social purposes.
Some details from our groups floats:
Left => layers of paint making the waves below the main part of the float
Right => the intricate paper flowers on the sides
Journeys with Sarajean 