What is fun to do on a hot summer evening apart from enjoying a cold beer with your friends is enjoying a cold beer with your friends while watching people dancing on the street.
Yes, I am enjoying my cold beer on a hot summer evening with my friends in the Niiza city (新座市) city watching the Awa Odori (阿波おどり) festival.
The famed dancing-in-the-street, Awa Odori festival, has a history of 400 years. It was originally performed in the Tokushima prefecture on the Shikoku island as part of the Obon festival (the festival of the Dead) to welcome the souls of the ancestors, but today it is considered to be one of 3 big folk dance festivals in Japan.
How Awa Odori festival started was an interesting one too. The story has it started with a drunken incident when a feudal lord was celebrating the completion of his castle by offering crates of sake to the villagers. The villagers drank and drank until they are totally wasted. One drunk staggered and another staggered and before you know it, the whole village is staggering into a dance. The drunk picked up musical instruments as they dance in the street. Like in a Bollywood movie with more drunks and less choreography. Personally, I think it will be pretty difficult to choreograph a dance when everyone is drunk ^^ but they did it so well that today, this dance festival has been performed in many prefectures in Japan, making it one of the most popular folk dance festival in Japan.
Today, the dance is usually choreographed (no more drunken dance performance), performed by groups of dancers dressed in a traditional Obon outfit accompanied by musicians. I really love the outfit of the dancers, all dressed in the vibrant colours of red, green and yellow outfit, perfect for this energetic occasion.
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| Love the colourful outfit! |
As they danced through the street, the dancers sing. The men and women's groups have different dance style, although, you can also sometimes see a group of women (usually younger women) dancing using the men's dance style.
The dances are usually pretty energetic with lots of jumps and twirling and it is infectious that sometimes you will see spectators dancing along and you are encouraged to do so at the end of the festival which makes the spectators feel that they are a part of Awaodori festival. I feel that Awaodori has the best festival and it usually ends with many smiles (I am just not so sure if it is from the beer or the dancing).
While I can't attend the original Awa Odori dance festival in Tokushima prefecture, I managed to attend one that is held in Niiza city and there are other Awaodori dance festivals scheduled for performance in other wards in Tokyo.
The famous one in Tokyo is the Koenji Awa Odori. This year is the 58th year for the Koenji Awa Odori Festival. This 2-day festival takes place on the 23rd and 24th of August at 5pm. It is scheduled to finish by 8pm.
To get to the event's venue, the closest stations are JR Koenji station (高円寺駅) on the Chuo Line (中央本線, Chūō-Honsen) and the Shin-Koenji station (新高円寺駅) on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line (東京地下鉄丸ノ内線 Tōkyō Chikatetsu Marunouchi-sen).
The map for the Koenji Awa Odori is available
here (in Japanese because the English website doesn't seem to work) and it is included in this post too ^^.
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| Map from Koenji Awa Odori website, http://koenji-awaodori.com/ |
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| Map from Koenji Awa Odori website, http://koenji-awaodori.com/ |
Like all the summer festivals in Japan, it is definitely advisable to go earlier than the said time of action to get a good viewing spot. To attend the one in Niiza city, me and my friends went 2 hours earlier to get an okay viewing spot. Once you secure your viewing spot, it's time to relax and enjoy the beer.
Yes, here I am, soaking in the smiles of friends and strangers, laughing at the cute antics of little kids and toddlers dancing to the music and enjoying the overall festive atmosphere.
So, have you attend the
Awa Odori festival yet in Japan?
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| This little one is also a dancer |
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| Playing in the street |
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