{"id":33513,"date":"2020-11-20T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/?p=33513"},"modified":"2020-11-19T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T06:10:30","slug":"dance-dance-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/essays\/dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance, dance, dance!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan is famous for many different festivals, especially summer festivals. I never quite understand who thought festivals in summer would be a good idea, considering how Japanese summers are known for being\u00a0<\/span>muggy<\/u>. However, I do have\u00a0<\/span>newfound<\/u>\u00a0<\/span>respect for those who take part in them, and those who brave the weather to support the organizers after seeing it happen with my own eyes.<\/p>\n

A local festival I have in my area is the famous Awaodori festival. Awaodori is a bon dance that originated from Tokushima Prefecture in the Shikoku region. It\u2019s currently the largest dance festival in Japan,\u00a0<\/span>drawing<\/u>\u00a0<\/span>a crowd of over 1.3 million each year. Although the original Tokushima Awaodori is a four-day festival held from August 12th to 15th, Koenji hosts the festival on the final weekend of August.<\/p>\n

Koenji originally started a dance festival in 1957 because the neighboring Asagaya started a large-scaled 5-day Tanabata festival in July of 1954. The dance resembled that of the Awaodori, so urban migrants from Tokushima living in Koenji at the time helped shaped it into what it has become today. It\u2019s now the largest Awaodori festival outside of Tokushima Prefecture,\u00a0<\/span>boasting<\/u>\u00a0<\/span>a crowd of around 1 million spectators annually.<\/p>\n

Awaodori is performed as a type of nagashi-odori in which dancing groups, called \u201cren,\u201d perform as they parade down the street. In Koenji, the festival is held in a loop that basically connects the JR Koenji Station and the Marunouchi Shin-Koenji Station, through the shopping arcade and on the main road. One ren consists of a dancing section, usually led by female dancers in kimono with iconic straw hats called amigasa, which are shaped like folded disks. Other dancers don\u2019t wear such hats, but are usually dressed in typical festival outfits with shorts and a bandana or cloth ring on their heads. They may be any gender or age. The group is accompanied by a group of musicians playing the shamisen, taiko, shoko, and shinobue. Last year, 169 rens with over 10,000 dancers took part in the festival.<\/p>\n

The dance itself isn\u2019t fast, as they often stop moving forward and dance where they are for a while before moving forward again, but they do cover quite a bit of distance in the three hours during those two days. After each set, they usually take a short break before they get to the next starting point. Spectators stand on both sides of the streets, hoping to\u00a0<\/span>catch a glimpse<\/u>\u00a0<\/span>of the dancers. Because the route goes through the shopping streets, most of the shops on those streets prepare a stand right outside to sell chilled drinks or snacks. This means there is a huge selection of food and drinks available, since it\u2019s not just typical festival food. I recommend exploring some of the smaller streets that branch off from the main roads, because that\u2019s how I discovered some of the coolest restaurants and shops in the area.<\/p>\n

Koenji station gets extremely crowded during the peak of the festival around 6-7 p.m. and the walking traffic from the station becomes one-way, so if you ever plan on checking it out, I recommend going at around 5:30 to 6 p.m. just so it\u2019s easier to meet up with others and to find a good area to stand.<\/p>\n

Despite the hot weather and all the sweating, the dancers do their best to put on a performance while\u00a0<\/span>grinning from ear to ear<\/u>. You might be sick of summer by then, but if their hard work and genuine smiles don\u2019t make you forget about that for just a second, I don\u2019t know what will.<\/p>\n

Loki<\/p>\n

\n

Vocabulary<\/b><\/p>\n

muggy (adj.) \u2013 unpleasantly warm and humid (weather)
\nnewfound (adj.) \u2013 recently discovered or established
\ndraw (v) \u2013 to attract attention or interest
\nboast (v) \u2013 to have or own something to be proud of
\ncatch a glimpse (idiom) \u2013 to see something only for a moment
\ngrin from ear to ear (idiom) \u2013 to look extremely happy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan is famous for many different festivals, especially summer festivals. I never quite understand who thought festival\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneup.jp\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}