Abandoned van in Gunma.

These, the "floats" that were pulled at Chichibu. Even with wooden wheels and weighing over 10 tons, these things seem to move rather smoothly.

Here's a series from the Chichibu Yomatsuri just this past weekend. The festival goes on for 2 days (December 2 and 3) and the highlight is at night. All local districts pull out their floats (I guess that's the word for them) and pull them through central Chichibu, Saitama. I read somewhere that these floats weigh more than 10-tons....and after looking at them, I wouldn't doubt it. The crowd is just amazingly too huge that at times, you can't even move your arms while walking (just like a packed train) or you can't make a turn because you are just being pushed along with the rest of the crowd. God help if someone fell down. What's so fun about this?!? I haven't the slightest idea but I would definitely go back again for the "Jagabata" (steamed potato). Of course, as at any matsuri, the food was good!

Anyway, here's a few of the people that pull these floats. Most were in their teens and mostly girls. Must've been a few hundred of them pulling at once. The cool thing is that they were all having fun while yelling out the name of their district and chanting "We're number 1!"

Cosmos taken near a dam in Gunma. I thought these flowers were Spring flowers but these were still blooming in the cold.
Ice Cream mascot/s near the entrance to Himeji Castle.