Nebuta Matsuri: reseved seats vs walking?

Hello, people!

For evening parade what is better: to book reserved seats or to walk around? During my last visit to Japan I went to Takayama festival and there weren't any reserved seats, but this time I'm confused =)

Thanks in advance

That might depend upon your age or physical condition. We walked around all day, so come parade time we were very happy to have made the acquaintance of a merchant, who kindly reserved seats for us. Most of the parade route was lined with reserved chairs - managed by each merchant, so if you wanted to be close, and not have people standing in front of you to spoil your pictures, then you probably needed a seat.

Thank you for advice!

We didn't walk, rather we stood. There's sections with reserved seating, and the rest is free for people to stand or sit. However, people often go there first thing in the morning, tape out an area they want to sit and put their name on it, and come back an hour or two before the event and sit on chairs they've brought. Having been to a number of the Tohoku summer festivals that had a similar system, I found the best thing to do was to stand behind people who were sitting, so you could get a good view, then keep your eye out for when people move. Usually at some point people will get up and leave mid parade, so you can move forward and sit on the ground.

Thank you very much!