Okay, everyone here knows Obon, right? Not really? Well learn it. Anyway, there's a festival at the end of Obon called "Awaodori". As far as I can tell it only happens in two places: Tokushima and Koenji. Fortunately for me, the latter location is an area of Tokyo less than 30 minutes from my doorstep.
Kuri had her way in bringing me to the festival (right after having her way in buying a smartphone, by the way). I'm glad she did because it was pretty awesome. (The smartphone is also awesome.) At the heart of it, the festival is a series of short, intense dance parades performed by almost 200 groups, totalling about 12,000 dancers, across 20 routes. Dancers are divided into men, women, and kids, and are accompanied by live music, including taiko drums, flutes, stringed instuments.
The beautiful thing about Awaodori is how chaotic it is. According to Wikipedia, the dance evolved from people being drunk (hence it's association with foolishness). I'm pretty sure this was the inspiration for the parade scene in Paparika, a movie which was in turn the inspiration for the movie Inception. It's coordinated but the sparatic movements and flailing body gestures stay true to the alcohol-induced origins. The music is equally as in-your-face, with old salarimen venting years of frustration from the office on tiny little clanging symbols.
It is, in other words, in every sense the epitome of a gong show. Check it out Youtube. See also the pictures I took from my mobile phone.
0 comments:
Post a Comment