Yosakoi 2011

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I danced in the Yosakoi Festival. It's probably Kochi's biggest event all year, with thousands of dancers coming to participate, and God only knows how many people coming to watch. I danced with the international team again, and this year we had a lot of foreigners on the team. There were several other ALTs, some exchange students from Kochi University, and a group of people who are in Japan for some sort of professional training program. I think there were 30 foreigners in all. Which is amazing, considering that last year there were only 3 foreigners.

It was as hot as ever, so wearing our long sleeved coats and long pants was pretty painful, but at least our costumes kept the sun off our skin. I got away with just a minor sunburn on my face. All the ALTs were pretty careful to use a good deal of sunscreen. Last year I only danced the first day because I got a horrible sunburn on my shoulders and arms, but this year I was able to dance both days.

Like last year, our team didn't have a bus, so we walked all across town to get to the locations where we were performing. There were places all over the city where they cordoned off a section of the street for Yosakoi. How it works is that the team truck rolls very slowly ahead of the team, blasting the music, and the team dances/marches behind the truck until they reach the end of that chunk of street. Usually it meant that we would do our dance three or four times at any given place, but there were a few very long streets where we danced much more. The dancing gets you hot and sweaty, but the exhausting part of Yosakoi is walking around all day in the heat to get from one location to another.

One thing I had forgotten was how much I can sweat. Just standing around in full costume was bad enough, but when we were dancing in Obiyamachi (the covered shopping arcade) where there was no breeze, the sweat was pouring all down my face and body. I haven't sweat like that in a long time. It was disgusting. Of course, everybody was sweating, but it would seem that I have a particular talent for it.

I can't remember all of the places we danced, but they included Otesuji (Sunday Market street), Otemae, Kochi Castle, Obiyamachi, Harimayabashi Shotengai (the shopping arcade at Harimayabashi), Umenotsuji, Aeon Mall, and Atago Street. My favorite place was probably Otemae/Otesuji (they were basically just different sides of the same wide street) because it was spacious and there were tons of people watching there. That was also where there were the most cameras, which can be distracting, but is also kind of fun. I get the feeling that a lot of pictures were taken of me. I know for a fact that a picture of Alex, Sasha and I dancing appeared in one of the local newspapers. My least favorite place to dance was Atago Street. The street was closed off to cars, but they still had buses going through, so while you were dancing you'd suddenly have to squish everyone into the left lane so that the bus could go by. It was pretty irritating.

Yosakoi is pretty exhausting and has its frustrating moments, but it's really satisfying when you look over at the crowd and see people smiling at you as you dance past. In some of the places where we were dancing very close to the spectators, they would try to fan us as we passed by. It was never very effective, but you have to appreciate the sentiment. I think there was a good feeling between the teams, as well; when the team ahead of you was starting, you'd clack your naruko (wooden noisemaker things) and cheer them on.

As for the medals they hand out, this year I got two. One of them is a round golden coin with a design stamped into it, and another is made of wood and shaped like a little naruko. Yamanaka, the team leader, also gave me one of the medals she made for people who helped out. Greedy as I am, I was hoping to get another one of those big flower medals that I got last year, but I didn't get one this time around. However, Philip and Soeng got them, so that's good news.

I have to admit that there was a lot of temptation to join a different team this year. The international team is one of the more ghetto Yosakoi teams. Our costumes are old, ugly, and very hot. Our music truck is pretty pitiful. Our dance is very simple and still our team doesn't do it particularly well. We don't have a bus, so we have to walk everywhere, which really takes a toll on your feet. Wouldn't it be nice to join a team that had cute costumes, a bus to ride, and better choreography?

Still, the international team is kinder and more welcoming than any other team could be. The people are all very interesting and friendly. This year I got to talk to more of them since my Japanese has improved and since I'm more confident. There were more young people this year, and I really enjoyed meeting them. Our team leaders are very patient and go far out of their way to include us ("us" being the foreigners). We're not easy to communicate with, but they keep trying until we've understood everything we need to. I don't think the staff on any other team could be bothered with people who can't even understand basic instructions. So, although another team would probably be more satisfying from a dancer's perspective, I don't think any other team could match the social aspect of the international team.

During the breaks in the schedule, we would stop at a park to have a snack. Those down periods were the best time to talk to everyone. I spent most of the time talking to the other ALTs (Sasha, Soeng, Jamie, Philip, Adrienne, and Laura) but I also got to talk with the Japanese team members. One of them is a university student who will be moving to Kagawa in the spring to become an English teacher. His English was really good and he was super cheerful. While he was going around trying to get everyone to eat bananas during snack time, Philip taught him a song about bananas, and he sang it repeatedly throughout the course of the day. This year I even tried talking to Oosaki, the flag-waver from last year (we didn't have flags this year). He's very handsome and doesn't speak English, which are two reasons why I was hesitant to approach him last Yosakoi. But he's also a very nice person, and I joined in a fairly long conversation with him and Soeng. I feel like this year I talked to a lot more people, which to me is a big improvement.

After two days of Yosakoi, I pretty much had no energy for anything on Friday. I was feeling blue; it's always a letdown when a big event ends. It also made me really sad to think that this might've been my last Yosakoi. If I quit teaching and come home next summer, I'll probably never get to dance in Yosakoi again. Even though the new contract year has barely started, I'm already being reminded of the choice I'll have to make come February: to stay or to go.

Next up on my agenda: meeting up with Devin and Tynan in Tokyo! I was busy enough with Yosakoi up until now that I didn't really get to think about it, but now I'm getting pretty excited. We're going to sight-see in Tokyo, climb Mt. Fuji (wish me luck!), and visit Kyoto.