Yosakoi

At the beginning of the month, my little town had a festival. It was called Furusato Mizuma, which basically means Mizuma Hometown. This festival had lots of tents with lots of food and some crafts but the big draw was the Yosakoi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi). Yosakoi is a fairly modern type of dance. Men and women of all ages (I saw an 18 month old baby being guided by her mother) dance in a troop. I am not good at describing dancing, or music really, so I found a website that has bunch of small snipe ts of videos that you can watch and see:
http://www.i-kochi.or.jp/YOSAKOI98/yod/index_e.html.

The costumes are in important part. They range in style from something classical (Kimono like to something modern (one group of guys and gals looked like they were out of an anime with their red jackets) or simple (girls from my school wore a colorful robe over a simple black shirt and black track pants with their hair up). Most every dancer had some kind of makeup on, again ranging from the simple (like my girls) to dancers with red over their eyes extending to their cheekbones and white down the top of their noses.

The music was taped, but the big booming voice that they use was often live. At the end--but wait; I am getting ahead of myself.

First off, let me again give props to the random boy who was wearing a Salt Lake City, Utah T-shirt. Someone has to represent, and I don`t have a Salt Lake hoodie; I was wearing my Columbia hoodie. (When you look at his picture you will notice that there is a white stripe down his nose, this is part of the make-up I mention later)

There were too far too many tents to count. Most were food. They included takoyaki (remember that from my last blog?), ramen, french fries, chocolate bananas, cotton candy and, of course, beer. They also had roasted chestnuts that I shared with my students I ran into as I walked around.

At one tent, the PTA of my jr. high school was making manju. First rice is cooked. Then it is pounded into a huge white pulp. To do this they had a huge granite bowl and large wooden mallets. Usually two men, but sometimes more, took turns pounding the rice. This involves whacking the rice and then pulling it back towards the whacker, spreading it out. I got to help do this.









At regular intervals water was on the mallets to help the rice not stick to them. After a sufficient amount of whacking, the rice was taken to a table that had flour spread out on it--to stop the rice from sticking to it. Women there were taking small amounts of rice and flattening them out so theyput could put a small amount of sweet red bean paste in the center and wrap. Voila, manju. It was a pretty popular treat, as manju is in general. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manju_%28food%29

At one tent some of the girls from the jr. high school, tennis players I think, were helping run a DIY postcard operation. I cannot really draw so I had one of the girls do one for me. It is really nice--even if it is only the girls names written in small calligraphy!

The first day I went at noon. I had to take a nap on the hill. I had to choose a place close to the stone path so I would not get hit by
kids sliding down on pieces cardboard. Of course, I got hit once any way.

On the second day, 3 of my friends joined me. They came basically because of the final act. We walked around and ate for awhile. It was pretty cool to see my students outside of school, even if I couldn`t talk to them. My friends all can speak some Japanese so they did the talking.

As it was getting dark, we went to watch the dancers. The third to last dancing act were girls from my school, with four boys waving the huge flags in the background that are customary. They were very good. I was impressed. After that some high school students and elementary school students came out and danced together. It was super cute.

I should mention that this festival is a big one for our part of Japan. I was told that dance troops come from all over Japan to dance. The reason my students went last (and really, they were performing for a second time) is because this was Mizuma`s festival.

After the last dancers, everybody rushed the forward dancing area. This was a huge section of grass in front of a stone platform that doubled as the stage. The benches are underneath some plastic shades and lights. In the morning, this is where the older folks gather and exercise together to a radio station playing a type of exercise muisc on a boom box they place at the front of the stone platform.

We all kneeled--which was a bad idea for me!--and waited for the big draw of the show: the Anmitsu Hime dance troop with Tomato. (Anmitsu Hime means a desert and a lady of high birth). Tomato is a transvestite performer, something which is very common in Japan. She would come out, sing and dance for a second and then break into a comedy routine that everyone around me found hilariously. I didn`t for the most obvious reason. After five or ten minutes she would pop backstage (curtains hanging from those plastic shelters and lights I mentioned earlier--not a shabby affair!) and the dance troupe, done up in some of the most gaudy outfits would come on and dance. Then, they would head back to change into another gaudy set of clothes and she would come back out in a new outfit to entertain us. This went on for over an hour. Finally, after we thought that the show was completely over, Anmitsu came back out and got the biggest, loudest Yosakoi voices to come up and everybody did the first and most famous dance--everybody seems to know it.

Having everyone dance was an amazing thing to see. The stage was crowded and the grass was full all around me of people in and out of costumes dancing. I didn`t enjoy it as much as I could of though; I was in deep pain.

Here is the thing, for over an hour I had been on my knees. Something the common Japanese person has no trouble doing. I , unfortunately, knew I was in trouble when, about 15 minutes in to Anmitsu`s performance I realized I could not shift; I could not move to my butt because the people around me had pushed their selves right up next to me (and I don`t know what the people behind me were thinking--how could they see over my huge head???). At 30 minutes, I decided to just get up and leave, but then I realized that was not going to happen. I figured I just needed to lie down prone for a few minutes. However their was no room to do this. My friends were in different positions, Alexis was smart and had sat down, Bea had enough room to slide off her knees to the side, while Jessica was in the same boat as I, if in better shape. At one hour, I was just ready to cry. Finally, after 80 minutes people got up to dance and I fell forward onto my hands. After a few seconds I decided to try and get up only to get knocked down by two little old ladies who were fleeing the dancing. Yes, mortifying, but I didn`t care so much because I was still dealing with the fact that I could not feel my feet or calves. I did manage to stand up with Jessica`s help. It was odd standing there feeling like my legs ended at my knees...