spirit of the dance

This past weekend was yet another road trip, this time to Sapporo for yosakoi. Yosakoi is a kind of traditional dance from the south of Japan that originated with fishermen (I’ve been told), but has become popular with women (housewives and teenage girls alike), evolved and grown… the yosakoi competition ran till Sunday and the competition was fierce, with the more traditional, elegant dances contrasting with hip-hop-, jazz-infused choreography. The teams also obviously spent a lot of time on their costumes and Sapp-town was unusually colourful as hordes of yosakoi-ers rampaged through the streets in silks and patterns. Also there were a lot of cute boys with eyeliner, which I love.

So I was lucky enough to sit right at the front of the main stage for a while, attempting to take photos as the dancers whirled around and heads bobbed in front of me. The music was loud and very danceable and I find myself with an unaccountable need to try find a cd of electric shamisen music. I have been in this country too long.

In any case Sapporo was severely crowded which kind of aggravated my sense of claustrophobia, and made me even more tired than I was (party on Friday night followed by a four-hour drive from Otofuke to Sapp-town). However eventually the second wind kicked in and we headed off for yet another night of Thriller karaoke, pirikura, and then… Rad Brothers. I had sworn never to got there again. That place is just… debauched. Oh well, an evening without transvestites and people biting Stephen and dancing on a bar is barely an evening at all.