I compare the festivities to it being like a city wide "So You Think You Can Dance?" type thing. Haha. Seriously, groups of people dance all over the city (not even an exaggeration) and they are competing for the best dance. Anyone can join at any age. I saw toddlers dancing and it was SOO dang cute I couldn't even stand it. I mean, check this little guy out!
Alright, so some history on this festival...
This whole thing started in the 1950s, so it is relatively new in Japan. There is an official Yosakoi Naruku dance and a song to go with it. Dancers also have these clapper things to make noise with. If you look at the picture above you can see the dancers holding them.
Since its creation, dancers dance to all sorts of music. As the dancers move through the town, they are lead by a car with a sound system and an MC so to speak. It seemed to me this MC would tell some kind of story, joke, or maybe describe the dance? I don't know, I don't speak Japanese. Haha.
The festival also has some booths set up to sell candy, food and random souvenirs.
It was an insane day! People dancing and yelling EVERYWHERE!
I took video and pictures and at the end of this post is a video I put together from it. It is a terribly edited video but there is one portion of the coolest dance of the day on there, it is totally worth watching!
Just so the video makes sense to you, I took you through my whole day, beginning to end. It started with me and a friend taking the train at Huis Ton Bosch for the first time, seeing dancers, and at the end I bought these dumplings? I ended that in a question cause I'm not sure if dumplings is the proper term. Anyways, I shoved the whole thing in my mouth. It wasn't to bad and there was a seafood taste to it so I was fine. I made my friend try it. She is not a fan of trying crazy food but she was a soldier and tried it. However, she only bit into half of it...and then....she started screaming!!!! Holy crap there was octopus inside!! I didn't care, I like it. She was grossed out, spit it back out, and I have officially scarred her for life from trying new food out here. Whoops!!
Anyways, check it out!
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