Summertime in the City - Bon Odori: Higashi-Koganei Video

Summertime in the City - Bon Odori: Nankin Tama Sudare Video

Summertime in the City - Bon Odori

"Hotte hotte, mata hotte, katsuide katsuide, ato sagari, oshite oshite, hiraite, cho-chong-ga-chong"

Higashi-Koganei Bon Odori

If you're going to go to a Bon Odori in Tokyo, this is one of the dances you're going to need to know. It's easy, thanks to the words above. They're instructions read in the rhythm of the dance. It translates roughly as "dig, dig, dig again, (carry on your) shoulder, (carry on your) shoulder, afterwards back up, push, push, open (your arms), clap, clap. Of course, you're not actually digging, just going through the motions. H.'s grandfather taught it to him when he was just a little thing. H.'s niece, M., taught me the dance with the help of YouTube last year.

Higashi-Koganei Bon Odori

There are a bunch of other dances, too, but they're an awful lot harder (but still do-able - a Bon Odori isn't exactly a place where you have to be good at dancing). All you have to do is follow one of the community ladies in a special yukata (summer kimono) and copy, copy, copy. But even they don't know all of the dances and end up copying each other. It's like one giant line of copy-cats, all craning to see what the person-who-knows-what-he-or-she-is-doing is doing.

H. and J. in Higashi-Koganei

For the second year in a row, H. and I went to our own little community Bon Odori in Higashi-Koganei. We took along a visiting friend, J., all decked out in a new yukata purchased earlier in the day in Asakusa. H. and I were in yukata, too, making us the most Japanese-y group there. Between the entertainment, which included taiko drummers, an enka singer, and a cheer-leading club, and the plentiful and cheap food (yaki soba, frankfurters, snow cones, candy floss, yaki tori, etc.), it was a glorious night of fun. 


A few weeks before the Higashi-Koganei Bon Odori, H. and I happened upon another Bon Odori, this time out Tachikawa way, on our way home from a day spent relaxing and barbeque-ing at Aki-kawa (Aki River). It was smaller than our own, but it also had an extra bit of Japanese culture: Nankin Tama Sudare, a really neat routine, involving a bunch of little sticks connected with string, that traditional Japanese "clowns" perform (although not very often these days). H. had actually never seen it live. For me, it was completely new. And, somehow, I found myself up on stage amongst a group of children, being taught how to do some basic shapes with the sticks. I suppose not surprisingly, I am now the proud owner of my own set (though it is disappointingly small). Also not surprisingly, nankin tama sudare also has a rhyme, as addictive as "The Song that Never Ends". 

"Asatte, asatte, asatte wa, nankin tama sudare..."

Tachikawa-area Bon Odori

Summertime in the City - the Awa Odori: Video Three

At the end of this video, there is some pretty great drumming. And, for the third time, it's all care of H.

Summertime in the City - the Awa Odori: Video Two

Some more footage. Again, care of H.

Summertime in the City - the Awa Odori: Video One

Awa Odori, Musashi-Koganei, 2010. Care of H.

Summertime in the City - the Awa Odori

"The dancers are fools, the watchers are fools, both are fools alike, so why not dance?"

 Well, I don't dance in this festival - it takes practice (which I may or may not do while walking down the street), but it sure is lovely to watch, if not a little noisy, what with the drums, flutes, clang-y things, whacking bamboo, and singing. But then, what good festival isn't noisy?

The Awa Odori is from Tokushima, Shikoku. H. and I went to see it last year. We camped around Shikoku for ten days, getting caught in a typhoon while we were at it. We also saw the Yosa Koi festival, but the Awa Odori was the one that stood out. It was fabulous! In Tokushima, the streets are long and wide. It's almost like the city was built to hold the festival.

Like most major festivals, though, a version of the Awa Odori (several, actually) are celebrated in areas outside of Shikoku. Tokyo has at least a handful, the most famous being Koenji. But while Koenji may be the most happening of the Tokyo Awa Odori, it is also the most reminiscent of being trapped in a sardine can. Good luck navigating the streets, or even breathing for that matter. H. and I went to Koenji last year. It was an experience, but crowds are not my forte, nor is getting other people's sweat all over my clothes (it's THAT crowded and Tokyo is blisteringly hot in the summer).

This year we decided to skip it and instead went to Musashi-Koganei and Nakameguro's Awa Odori. Musashi-Koganei's was a little disappointing, but only because the area around the station was under construction, making for some rather unfortunate backgrounds. Sitting on the curb for so long also resulted in some painful pins and needles, but what's a little numbness for something so beautiful? At right is one of the drummers, H.'s favourite part of the festival. One of the most exciting things is when the drummers stop and just pound away, dipping down low as they wail on their drums.

Nakameguro's was against a much nicer backdrop (a shopping street). AND, what made it even better was that we managed to score some stools and fans: like I said before, Japanese summers are hot! Of course, the fact that there was a dragon only sweetened the deal. The other Awa Odori's didn't have that. They had people acting as kites, which was amazing. The narrow streets of Tokyo, however, don't really lend themselves well to that sort of thing, though. Dragon made up for it. 

My friend, J., was also in town, and we lucked out getting to show her something so quintessentially Japanese, even if it means we are fools.

Summer in the City - Festivals

Japan is a country of festivals, and in no season are those festivals more plentiful than in summer. Neighbourhoods have little festivals where they carry "mikoshi" up and down the streets (between pounding back the sake, of course); communities have "obon" festivals with dancing, taiko drums, and, in some random cases, Hawaiian dancers; and of course, there are the big festivals involving hundreds of dancers, musicians, street vendors, etc. This summer, I enjoyed a little bit of everything, and even found myself up on stage at one point.


Anyway, pictures and story follow. Enjoy!