Bon Odori Festival

Just got back from this festival thing. Was pretty cool. So the Tamba Internation Association invited a bunch of people in the area to this Bon Odori dance thing. Basically, we wore yukata, learnt a little dance, and marched the streets with it.

So we started off getting changed, and being taught the dance by a government worker from ciity hall who just loved the dance. Then wandered down to the place, where all rival groups seemed to be gathering (as the 'wacky foreigner' group we all had different yukata, but all the others had a serious uniform thing going on, with white with blue stars and sea, red with black writing etc. So we wandered the streets for a while to this repetive old song (kind of catchy though) doing our little dance, all in lines, it was very organised and polite. Cool though. Then maybe an hour later wandered into this big central arena. There they had a guy playing taiko drums while an old guy sang, and it sounded pretty dope, a bit like indian classical singing, a bit like free jazz. It had amazing call and response bits when he would wail off on one and the kids and crowd would do some chanting back with the taiko drums holding down the beat. People started doing this (pretty funky to be honest) dance, around this big field, and we joined in a little. Doing the whole 'WOAH IM A FOREIGNER IN JAPAN JOINING IN WITH TRADITIONAL THINGS' thing, but tbh was really fun.

Okay so after a while dance competition starts and these really cool little kids have made their own variation on the dance we're all doing, and they start showing it off. There's also a dance group for the over 60s who are probably one of the best there (and wearing really dope costumes of sort of dance skirts and masks.) The kids obviously win, and afterwards this little brazilian kids gets up and starts breakdancing to the uptempo lounge. Okay it wasnt so much lounge anymore, but still lounge influenced.

That was all for tonight, tomorrow is fireworks and drinking and stuff. Wooo, should be good.

The picture tell the story anyway (not in this order): Manly bandanas; Tamba represent; Rival dance crew; Crazy costumed dancers; over 60s dance group; cool kids collecting their prize for the coolest dance ever.



Oh and on the way back, I noticed that mixed in with the shops, there where various artworks made specially for the festival. Some where amazingly creative, like there was a beautiful scene with a crane flying over a river, and when you looked closely, you noticed it was all made from various different colour, size, and shape plates. Awesome! But the following one is absoolutely mindblowing. Bear in mind that it probably took ages to do as it's made of paper mache, and is properly life size. It was given a great spot at the festival and you can see why... It's just brilliant. Check:



Wow. Just wow.

--------------------------------------------

THURSDAY:
Went back for a second day, tonight was more the festival proper, eating, drinking, still some dancing but more of a funfair kind of atmosphere. They had beautiful fireworks that went on for a whole hour, sitting watching them with a can of kirin and some okonomiyaki on a stick... magic. Ate octopus balls for the first time, (balls of batter with octopus inside, not... y`know) they`re so good. Looked at the Zidane artwork again, turns out it`s not paper mache, but the bodies are made with carefully glued together envelopes. Even better.