Obon- Japanese Buddhist Festival!

On August 12th, we went with our friend Niki to Tokushima city on the Island of Shikoku, to celebrate Obon Festival- the Buddhist Festival to honor the dead (read this instead of me regurgitating it to you). We rode in Niki's car, picking up other friends along the way. On a regular day, it takes about 2.5 hours to get there. However, as Niki had warned us, it was going to be holiday traffic- so it ended up being more like 5 hours! The ride was not without fun stops along the way though.

After about an hour we stopped in Mino for some pastries and coffee to go. Then later we stopped at the Takosato cracker factory. I went around sampling a lot of different crackers, and bought a few bags of the ones I liked! Most were shrimp or octopus flavor, so Scott was not so eager.

We drove over Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in the world.

 As we got to the edge of Shikoku, we passed through Naruto City, which is famous for the "naruto" or whirlpool that forms in the waters there. I couldn't get a photo, but I did see it from the bridge and it was awesome.

We also saw the cube-shaped rocks that the coast guards use to form artificial rocks near the coast, in order to control the waves and tides.

We drove through a pretty good rain storm but it had let up by the time we got to Tokushima and parked the car.  The parade was already going so we watched some of the dancers and musicians exiting and doing their Awa Odori dances. There were many different groups, some of which train all year for the parade. Apparently its somewhat of a competition! 

Huge crowds heading to the parade

The parade was surrounded by bleachers packed full of people!

Performers! 

This kind of headdress is only for women! Its pretty.

Gotta throw a cute mascot in there!

Niki disappeared for a few minutes and came back with outfits for us to wear and told us that we were going to learn the Awa Odori (Dance of Fools) and participate in the end parade (I was especially excited because this is something Scott would never have agreed to do if I had suggested it)!

Us in our festival garb

We joined up with other people who were also going to do this, and the announcers began to call out and ask where everyone had come from. They called different cities and prefectures, and when they got to, "Anyone from a different county?" we cheered and raised our hands.  Then another announcer hustled over to ask us where we were from. "America kara!" we said happily. He wrote it down and hurried back to the podium to give it to the announcer, who announced it to everyone! 

With Niki and some of his friends

After more cheering, we all briefly learned the dance steps together, which are different for men and women. Then we lined up to enter the parade. When we got to the entrance, they announced us again to the crowd- no chance of sneaking away now!

Walking in lines to the parade entrance

Getting ready to dance...!

I'm not sure how long in time or measure it was, but I definitely got into some kind of trance, especially with the call and response of "Yattosa, Yattosa" combined with the music and dance. Really a cool experience!!

Fools who danced the dance of fools!

Us and Niki! Haha

More performers!

Massive crowds meandering after the parade

Lots of ladies in Yukatas! 

After the parade we went to dinner to meet up with some of Niki's friends from Naruto College a few years back, so it was kind of a mini reunion for him which was fun. Lots of drinking and trying to speak Japanese commenced, for many hours to come. Its always a treat to meet Japanese people who aren't afraid to talk to foreigners. Its funny because so many Japanese people are worried about their english or ashamed that its not better, but 9 times out 10 its way better then our Japanese! Sure, miscommunications happen, and it can be awkward, but this is why we have alcohol.

Hai Cheezu!

Shochu and some fermented potatoes and jelly(?)... lets just call it DRINKING FOOD

 ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ

At the end of the night we ended up at someones house playing N64 Smash Brothers, still drinking. We  got up early the next morning to drive home, which only took 2 hours because there was no traffic.

Such a fun time, we are very thankful that we got to go!!