Yosakoi ~ <3
All lined up and ready to go!
On Sunday, it was the Shiraoi Hachiman Shrine Festival in my town. Actually, sadly, this is the first time I’ve talked about doing something my own town – most of my time is spent in Tomakomai or elsewhere.
I was intent on sleeping in that morning after staying up until 4 am the previous night after some wild karaoke with my badminton buddies, but was awakened by drumming, whistling and chanting. At first, in my sleepy stupor I thought I was still dreaming but after rubbing my eyes a bit and looking at the clock (it was 11 am, not really that early I suppose) – I looked out a window to see mikoshi. During a festival, the local shrine while carry around a small portable shrine to all the neighbourhoods that worship at that particular shrine. In my town, I imagine that’s all of them.
I got out of my house around 1:30 pm and made my way to the main street where the main event would be happening – YOSAKOI! It’s easier to show you what yosakoi is rather than explaining it but honestly – there’s nothing better than seeing it live!
A couple samples of yosakoi – I have more to upload later!
Can you see the little girl on the side trying to dance as well in the second video? Too cute!
So I took quite a few videos. Sadly the really good teams (these ones are really good too, so imagine the champion winners!) came on quite late so it was too dark to take a video. The quality on my camera isn’t great, nor are my video-taking skills – so I hope you kind of get the idea.
After watching about 5 hours of yosakoi, I decided that rather than sit here admiring how cool it is – why don’t I do it too? That’s the same thing I thought when I tried belly dance for the first time. The reaction I got from most Japanese I’ve told my crazy idea to so far, “But yosakoi is too hard I think.” Well, as you can see, yosakoi definitely doesn’t look easy – but just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it!
So I told this idea to Duncan and he was all for it! He knew that there used to be a yosakoi in Shiraoi that was run by the local shrine (Hachiman Jinja) but that they had disbanded. After asking around, it was confirmed that that had been the only group in the immediate area. So after we were done at our school, we went to the shrine and spoke to the priest who ran the yosakoi team and he told me the closest would be either Muroran or Chitose. Both are about an hour away. That’s actually not too shabby considering it’s more like half an hour away if you drive at a reasonable pace (probably :P). Either way, I want to make my time in Japan meaningful, so in November I should introduce myself to them and then in January, the club starts up.
I’m pretty excited! So until then, Duncan is helping me set up a gym membership in Tomakomai so I can train and get in shape for my next year of awesomeness!
Here’s hoping everything pans out!