May 5th is Kodomo No Hi (National Children's Day) in Japan. It's part of the Golden Week celebrations, which includes 4 national holidays, and is one of Japan's longest vacation periods. So people are off work and school and ready to party or travel or spend time with family (which of course are not mutually exclusive!). This particular day is to honor and respect children's individual strengths and to wish them happiness and good health.
(Yes I say! Why do we not have this is other parts of the world? We'll celebrate a bunch of dead guys, some fabric, having jobs, and even weather predicting vermin -sorry Punxsutawney Phil- , but what about the kids, eh?! Not one fun holiday for the kids that doesn't involve religion or pretending to be someone else.)
Eri and Rufus invited us to join them to a children's festival in Anan. It's about a 45 minute drive toward the southeastern coast, a most splendid ride through narrow back lanes and country roads, rife with farms, creeks, mountain scapes and forests, and which is actually Rufus' commute to work. Anything you do repeatedly can become mundane, but if I were ever to have a route to work, I'll take this one.
It was a spectacularly gorgeous day, not a cloud to be seen, with just the right amount of breeze to take the sizzle out of the sun. Excitement was mounting as we walked down the long ramp toward the river, not sure what to expect. Hopper and Ira were already fired up chasing each other and pointing out every flying little thing they saw.
We were greeted by massive koi wind socks floating in the wind over the river. They are the emblem of the festivities, symbolizing strength, bravery, and determination and bringing luck and good fortune. The festival itself was a whole fairground of kidsplosion set up on a river bank (full of rocks I might add, this so wouldn't fly in the US, that you couldn't use a stroller or wheelchair, and some litigious mf'ers would stub a toe and bankrupt the city).
They must've asked real kids what they want to do because they totally nailed it: a fireman helping kids spray a hose, open police and military vehicles, different sized diggers operating with kids on laps, tank tractor rides, train rides, boat rides, a treasure hunt in the rocks, as well as water sprayers, shooting games, and some popular super hero/cartoon characters walking around to get your photo taken with.
Hopper had so much fun, it was a joy to see him so happy. Whining was at a minimum, smiling was at a maximum. And the snacks were top! A fantastic day!!!
the bridge got partially washed out in last year's typhoon season...
... so the military was there to escort attendees...
... by boat!!!! (AND, these vests were new, as in no gross sweat/mildew smell whatsoever!)
steady stream of koi
mama hijacked the po-lice car
my partner Hopper, with his own break pedal
holy sh!tst!cks it's Anpanman!!!
these dolls are all over this prefecture, must get more info about the who and why
cutest fire truck ever! and that is the color of the river!
one of H's fave things to do is spray anything, but he made me stay next to him due to the stranger at the helm
DIGGERS!!! (but Hopper wouldn't do it, don't think he wanted to sit on a strange lap)
you know those pervasive foam water sprayers with the drawback intake, these are made of real bamboo!
little takoyaki, little shaved ice, little popcorn, little fried chicken
Tractor tank ride, possibly Hopper's fave of the day. They set up the course with a couple ramps that the tractors tried to climb. Genius
had to include this photo, something nicely chaotic about it
ok, this is all about Ira, I mean look at that face!
sometimes my camera does interesting things all on its own
Thomas ride
fishing for the captain's hat
our boat captain, one of Rufus' English students
He popped his head down and said...
... I'm a hermit crab! And this is my house!
with Sawa looking for crabs
throwing rocks for days
why is throwing rocks into water such a relaxing activity?
playing with double exposure
This dude. Yeah he sells strawberries in his custom pimped out ride. With a tight perm.
chillin between events, with Sawa and her boys Noah and Joshua (we met them last time) and another friend of theirs with her 2 daughters
Last thing, flinging things at the crowd! Kids first! (bags of food science chips)
MOCHI! Holy moly I went up to watch since I was told it's kinda mayhem for mochi tossing. In the end I HAD to participate as these rice pucks were flying at my head. I ended up collecting a bunch of them as one kid kept winging them my way. My hands stung for half an hour afterward from catching them. Here's a short video I fired off...
treasure hunt in the rocks looking for hidden tickets, I found one and won a can of baby bamboo shoot!
fell asleep hard within 2 minutes of getting in the car
If both are fools, you might as well have fun dancing!"
These are the lyrics to a song for the Awa Odori. It's Japan's biggest, most famous folk dance festival. It takes place every year in Tokushima City, usually in August, and draws hundreds of thousands of people to party in the streets for 4 days with a spectacle of dances to rouse and welcome the ancestors as well as your drinking spirits.
The story goes that when the feudal lord Hachisuka Iemasa opened Tokushima's new castle in 1587, he offered sake to the townspeople who became so inebriated that they danced with an unsteady gait, which gave rise to the dance's incarnation of slightly awkward moves. Through the centuries, the same dance is performed by men, women, and children alike who practice for 6 months to get the legs and arms to move just so. The music is performed with shamisens, gongs, flutes, and taiko drums. This is no tame lyrical piece, the dance is energetic and increases in tempo. The kids start out with calls and chants followed by the women doing a more elegant syncopated dance while stepping on the fronts of their wooden slippers, almost like ballerinas en pointe. (Their hats are out of this world, like splayed fans encasing their heads.) The men then come out all explosive energy, doing more freestyle moves within the dance vocabulary, punctuated with shouts and claps and lots of crowd intimidation. The show we saw, the musicians played so fast and furious that one woman performing a duet fell to her knees and then had to be carried out on her partners back! Being that we missed the big city celebration due to lack of available hotels, which was both a disappointment and blessing as Hopper surely would not have enjoyed throngs of shouting people in the streets, we were excited to see a smaller celebration here in Kamiyama at the Shosanji Temple, number 11 on the 88-temple pilgrimage route on the island. The 20 minute drive up the mountain through fog and leaping frogs ended with a most breathtaking stroll up the candle-lit path to the temple. We joined a couple hundred people who were excitedly chatting and kids running amok, excited by the promise of fireworks and shaved sugar ice. The first dance is community dance, so Hopper and I joined in with him clinging to me for dear life. One older lady was just gettin' down, not caring what the steps were, so much so that her friends were trying to pull her out of the circle for fear of embarrassment. But she wasn't having it. Just shakin' it, she was. After a small lull we heard the drums start to beat from behind the temple. Then the call from the kids, who were so cute in their costumes, confidently chanting, slowly making their way to the dance area behind a man with lanterns. And the whole thing unfolded in variations and brought tears to my eyes. I wanted it to go on and on. So much joy and expression which is what makes this festival so unique. The fireworks began shortly thereafter to which Hopper was none so pleased. But they burst just overhead as they're launched from further down the mountain, so never have I ever experienced them so close and engulfing. It was spectacular. Again and again, we have felt so lucky and honored to be part of this organization, this community and its open arms, and the rich culture of this island. PS. We were still working out the camera so a lot of the photos are blurry.
the guys in blue with red belts are firemen, they were on hand in case the fireworks set the temple alight, but I'm fairly certain their main concern was beer
that's my head semi-blocking the light, Awa Odori dancing with Hopper and the locals
the guys
the kids coming out
bring out the girls
check out their stance, balancing between the wooden peg and front of the shoes
the kids were so good
brought to her knees, she cursed the musicians for playing too fast (all in good spirits of course)
