parade on Nakano dori

I was able to catch the parade from the very beginning since it was road going towards Nakano while I was heading away from it. The first part of the parade were all girl/boy scouts.

The above was the first start of the parade.

There were so many different troops and many of them had their own marching band.

Some also had flag girls.

When I saw this particular troop, *points above* the girls finished twirling and handed the flags over to a new group of girls. (One of them looked like a boy...so that would make him a flag boy. ^.^) The ones that were flag girls before went to the back to join the band.

The little bags at their waist was to hold their recorders.)

Out of all the pics I took of 'leaders', this one was my favorite. She looks like she has an attitude. ^.^ You go girl! This troop was pretty awesome. They had keyboard players...

...as well as those keyboard-like instruments that you have to blow into to make music. ^^;

After the scouts came the shrines.

After this shrine were two people twirling a pole. (It reminded me of the weapon that the Inquistors used in Trinity Blood.) The spun it up and down. Various people took turns spinning it.

Then came this gigantic shrine. It was very tall.

It was also followed by a band. The flat drums (drums without a body) were actually quite loud.

What followed next totally surprised me:

I don't know why I should be surprised. This organization is in NY so it would make sense that I'll see it in Japan too. Their part in the parade was the biggest actually.

Long lines of flashy, traditional Chinese outfits.... I wonder how many Japanese people are in there? Or are they mostly Japanese? The police cars were at the very end. ^.^

I still don't know the occasion for this particular parade, but it was interesting to observe.