Sunday, June 12, 2011

Only in Japan: Yosakoi

It's almost summer, and that means festival time in Japan. This week, it was the Yosakoi festival, which has been held in Sapporo for 20 years. Although the festival is not that old, Yosakoi was inspired by an old Japanese ritual of dance in hope for a prosperous fishing season. Now, it's a great excuse for huge groups to wear awesome costumes and dance their hearts out. My Japanese teacher told me that Yosakoi groups from all over Japan come to the festival in Sapporo and that there's about 200 groups every year. And seeing as how there's about 20 or more dancers in each group - well, that's a lot of people, y'all!

Ethan and I went to see some of the dancing on Thursday night, and again Sunday afternoon. A few of our ALT friends were in some of the groups, and maybe next year I'll join in!








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