0:01:46 - The poem Sayuri is reading is called "Eiketsu no Asa" ("The Morning of the Final Farewell", or "On the Morning of Our Eternal Goodbye") by Miyazawa Kenji. We used a translation commonly available on the Internet, to which most sites credit it as "Unknown Translator." If anyone happens to know the name of the translator, let us know and we'll update this note. For the full text of the poem, see this site.

0:13:25 - Nebuta is an annual fesitval held in Aomori, the main characters' hometown. They apparently have a fairly ugly (and presumably scary) demon float there as well. For more information on the Nebuta Festival, see this page (and the second picture down shows the demon).

1:01:06 - "Spring and Asura" is another poem by Miyazawa Kenji. Amazon has a nice collection of poems that include both this and the previous poem, as well as dozens of others by different authors. For general information on Miyazawa Kenji, see this page.