So, Monday night was the final practice session for the International Team. It was an optional practice since there were also pre-festival fireworks that evening. Since it looked like it was going to rain, I chose to go to practice instead of watching fireworks. When I arrived at practice, the building was dark and some of my teammates were standing across the street waiting. I went over and waited with them for a while before someone was able to open the building. I'm glad I saw them there, or I probably would've assumed practice was canceled and gotten back on the tram.
Practice was kind of a mess at first because we didn't have the music or naruko and none of the instructors were there. Two other team members and I were reasonably confident about the steps, so we started leading the group in practice, just counting it out. It was really challenging to remember the steps without the music; several times we got stuck and had to skip to other sections. After a while, Yamanaka-sensei showed up with the CD player and naruko, and we got started for real. Up until this practice session, I had still been relying really heavily on watching the other dancers in order to remember the steps, but things seemed to have clicked. I was able to remember the dance on my own and by the end of the evening, Yamanaka-sensei had me up at the front of the class so other people could follow me. It was really satisfying to have finally figured things out.
Another JET from out of town showed up at practice; her name was Sasha. Rather than make her drive back to Tosa-cho and return in the morning, I invited her to stay with me for the festival. I hadn't been planning on having a guest, but it worked out fine. On Tuesday morning we suited up in our costumes and walked down to the meeting place. We arrived really early, so we wandered around the park that was across the street. We saw some really outrageous costumes; the teams ranged from traditional to downright funky in style. The International Team wore long white pants, a sleeveless top that was reddish orange on top and turquoise at the bottom, and a white overshirt with kimono sleeves. The fabric was lightweight, but it was very warm. At 10:30 AM, we met up with our team and headed out.
I hadn't really understood how Yosakoi works, so I was pretty surprised to discover that we would be performing all over town and walking from one venue to the next. We spent from 10:30 to maybe 1:00 getting to a park and waiting there before our first performance. At the park we also had a lunch of onigiri (rice balls). While we were waiting, I took off my overshirt because I was worried about heatstroke. In the end, I was choosing between heat and sun, and I paid for it. My shoulders and arms are horribly sunburned. I had put sunscreen on my face, but hadn't done my arms because I was counting on wearing my long sleeved overshirt.
At our first performance, I started to see how things fit together. Each team had a decorated van that played their music over large speakers. The wealthier teams had more elaborately decorated vans; one had a row of lanterns at the top that flashed on and off in a pattern. Some vans had people with microphones on top, singing with the music or shouting out encouragement. Our van was relatively plain, but along with the recorded music we had a live taiko drummer. All the teams had different music, but they all had to incorporate something from a particular Yosakoi song. There were some pretty drastic remixes, but our group used a rather traditional-sounding rendition of the song. When it was our turn, the van pulled out from the side of the street and we formed our rows behind it. The van rolled slowly along and we did our routine about three times before we reached the end of the street. I was very confused when I saw an old man run into the group and send one of my teammates over to a booth at the side of the road. Not long after, he came up to me, smiling, shouted something and pointed me over to the booth. It turned out that they were handing out medals! Later someone explained that they handed out a certain number of medals to each team at each venue. She said that the way to get a medal was to smile a lot and be very enthusiastic. I was definitely smiling, that's for sure.
After we finished at that street, we walked a considerable distance back across the river to the next venue. We danced again. I wasn't really sure what the schedule was for the day, so I didn't realize how many times we would be dancing, and how far we would walk. I hadn't looked closely at my schedule because it was written in kanji. If I had actually been paying attention, I would have realized that we would be dancing 6 or 7 times between 10:30 AM and 9:00 PM. We walked all the way from one end of town to the other, even going to Kochi Station and Aeon Mall on foot. It got to be pretty grueling, but whenever it was time to perform, I got excited again. I'm pretty impressed with some of my older teammates who managed to be enthusiastic throughout the day, even during down times. I wasn't always sure where we were, but I was especially excited when we got to dance in one of the shopping galleries near Harimayabashi.
As it got toward evening, we ended up in another park to eat dinner. Team helpers handed out bento with rice, several kinds of pickled vegetables, and a few small pieces of meat. There was also watermelon and cucumbers rubbed in salt, which are surprisingly tasty. We had taken other drink and snack breaks during the day, but at dinner we had more time to sit down and relax. It got dark and I wondered when the day was going to end; I was very tired and could feel that my skin was pretty badly burned. We only had one more performance left and I wasn't entirely sure where it would be, or where we were at the time.
It turned out that our final performance of the day was on one of the main streets which ends at the foot of Kochijo Castle. The street was very wide and there was an amazing crowd, along with camera crews. The spotlights on the back of the trucks were turned on and the music was turned up louder than ever. I was really excited. The younger girls on the team had been talking about the Ryoma Medals which would be handed out at this venue. I don't think they have a special significance, but they're coveted because they have Ryoma Sakamoto on them, and he's the local hero. Everyone's energy was up and we gave it our best. During the dance, one of the festival staff came up and gave me a Ryoma Medal! It's a big orange-red plastic flower with a medal in the center that has Ryoma's face on it. I was thrilled! It was a really fun way to end the day.
After our final dance, we walked back to the Prefectural Office. By this point, I had given up on dancing the second day; I was worried about being out in the sun again. Even if I wore my coat all day, my hands would still be exposed, and they were already very red. I'll never again make fun of the women who wear arm covers in the hot weather; a pair of those would've saved me a nasty burn! I felt bad telling the team leader that I wouldn't be dancing the second day, since I had signed up for both days, but she didn't seem upset with me. She's a really kind lady. During practice times, she drove me home even though I could've just taken the tram. I didn't understand most of our conversations since I don't know much Japanese, but she was always good natured about it.
That night, Sasha and I came back to the apartment. Elizabeth was kind enough to give me a number of aloe products that a friend had left with her, and I slathered those on after taking a cold bath. Sasha was also somewhat pink, but by this morning her skin was mostly back to normal. Her main problem was blisters on her feet. Apparently the sneakers I bought for Yosakoi fit well, because I didn't get any. Wednesday morning, we went to the team meeting site to return our costumes. It was a little sad handing them back in. At that time, I also pre-ordered a DVD of our performances; throughout the day, we had a cameraman with us, taking video. I remember because he filmed me while I was trying to eat my lunch. So, assuming I wrote my address correctly, I should get a DVD eventually. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll make you all watch it at some point ;)
After handing our costumes in, Sasha and I drove to Aeon Mall to do some shopping. Sasha is based in a small town, so she wanted to check out the mall, and I was more than happy to go with her. We ended up being there quite a while. We looked at a few shops, then went outside and watched some of the Yosakoi teams. I was especially impressed with one team which was comprised almost entirely of little old ladies. The fact that they could do such a grueling march all across town for two days in a row was astounding to me. Besides that, their costumes and dance were also impressive. I took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed being a spectator. Then, it started raining like crazy. Sasha and I went back inside and had pizza for lunch. It was even a normal kind of pizza, not the crazy corn and mayonnaise business they do here. I swear, corn and mayonnaise are actual pizza toppings in Japan. No, I haven't tried it.
After shopping some more (and spending more than I intended to), we decided to call it a day. Sasha still had to drive back home. We found our way back to Kochi Station, where I could catch a tram and she could find her way to the Expressway. I returned home and unpacked my purchases. My favorite: a yukata covered in orange and pink flowers! Now I'm considering going back out to watch some more Yosakoi. It's still cloudy and likely to rain again, as it has rained on and off all day. I guess I could've participated today without making my sunburns too much worse, but in the end I am glad to have gotten to be a spectator, as well. This is my first Yosakoi, after all. And maybe I'll get to dance again next year...
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