Kochi Yosakoi
Wow, two entries in the space of a week, that's pretty good.
Yesterday I took the day off (Whee!) and went to the Kochi Yosakoi festival with friends. This festival is all about several days of music, dancing, and costumes, so naturally, I was very excited about the whole thing, and as expected, I had a wonderful time!
There are teams from all over Japan who perform and compete in this thing. They parade around town and also do an en masse performance on a stage where it is broadcast live on TV. I'm not sure how the judging/voting goes, but at the end there are prize winners as well. One of the requirements is somehow incorporating a certain line from the original traditional song they used to use in the olden days into their music they dance to. From that line, each team can freely build up their own song around it, remix it, and create their own dance routine to it. So, there's a lot of unique flavors coming from each act, but there's always that one familiar bit in it that kindof ties everything together. Of course, some teams were better at doing this than others, but almost all of them were delightful.
Costumes were fantastic, of course, but I bet some of them were quite difficult to deal with in the heat.
I liked that while some teams had a Western feel to costumes and music, most had very distinctly Japanese (or at least Asian) costumes and music, so even though we were in a modern city, with giant boom boxes and cameramen and TV screens everywhere, I still felt like I was experiencing a piece of Old Japan. As much as I enjoy modern pop culture and music and such, I've learned that the part of Japan I still love no matter what is traditional Japan, and especially festival-time Japan. Because no matter who you are and what your station is, everyone gets a chance to dress up and go wild at the festivals, and it's brilliant. The music and dancing was so colorful and exciting, that I was literally breathless watching some of the performances.
I would recommend looking up Kochi Yosakoi (高知よさこい） on youtube if you're interested, because I can't really describe it adequately. Of course it's not quite the same as actually being there, but you'll get a better idea of what I saw that way.
I was a little disappointed that the people watching weren't dressed up. I only saw a few girls in yukata, and that was it, so I felt a little out of place in my jinbei, but oh well. I know traditional Japanese clothes aren't exactly practical for everyday wear, but I really love them. I wish I could have more chances to wear mine.