Aizuwakamatsuri

Aizuwakamatsu is a town in Fukushima. Every year they have a samurai parade where a bunch of people dress up in period clothing. There are samurai, retainers, and ladies. The morning started off with a performance by a dance group. Then, there was a fight scene. This was followed by taiko drums, the parade, another fight scene, more parade, gun salutes, a canon salute, and taiko drums. I think there were also daimyo (lords) in the parade but I'm not sure that they weren't just samurai. Everyone on horseback was male, except for one woman (important figure in Aizu's history?), and the mayor even dressed up and rode in the parade I heard. There was even a famous actress named Ayase Haruka (Riding on a cart, not a horse). She plays the lead role, a woman named Yamamoto Yae in a historical drama which just finished running. The drama takes place around the Aizu area during the Boshin civil war. Yae was one of the few women to use a gun, very unusual for the time. Interestingly enough, she later became a Christian and married a Christian Japanese man who started a school in Kyoto.
After the parade, we went to a nearby bakery for lunch. I don't remember the name, but the food was decent.
 Next, we went to Aizuwakamatsu castle. This isn't actually a real castle. The original was destroyed, and a new one was built in it's place. It's a museum now. The entrance fee for the castle and for a tearoom is 500 yen or so. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time at the castle. I wandered through another part of it, so I didn't have time to make it to the tea house. The castle is set away from the city. Unlike the Sendai castle it is, thankfully, not on the top of a mountain. The walk up to the castle is very pretty.
Now, for the title of my post. The name of the town is Aizuwakamatsu (会津若松). On the day of the festival, there were flags with Aizuwakamatsuri written on them. (I'm not sure exactly of the kanji.) But, in Japanese the word for festival is matsuri (祭り). The matsu in matsuri and the matsu in aizuwakamatsu are written differently, but the pronunciation is the same. So Aizuwakamatsuri means Aizuwakamatsu festival. It's a play on words.