yosakoi! soran-soran!

Today I finally got to go to the annual Sapporo よさこいソーラン祭り Yosakoi Soran Festival. Yosakoi is a kind of very active Japanese dance which involves a group, all dressed in cool costumes, dancing together, waving 15 foot flags, and making noise with 鳴子 clacker things. Usually every town or city has at least one, and they have a distinct costume, usually very colourful and bright with long sleeves. There are hundreds of these groups, not only from Japan but from cities around the world.

I did Yosakoi in Kamikawa, but I didn't go to the Soran Matsuri because I was in Thailand at the time. But I did meet up with the Kamikawa group this time, they thought it was so wierd to see Ruth-sensei again. In fact, if you look at this years memorial album, you'll see me tucked in the back row :P This picture is just funny because a cop got caught in the big flag. I giggled.

Soran is an old fishing call, like "Heave-ho!", and some of the moves include pulling an imaginary rope. I highly recommend going to this festival!

Just for randomness: Look, guys with TV screens on their heads. They were playing commercials for something.

I love Japan.