Last week, after Melody came back to land, we met our landlords down at the local pedestrian area near our house for the neighborhood Bon Odori Festival. As mentioned in an earlier post, it celebrates ancestors who have passed on, and who are thought to come back and hang out on earth for a few days every year. It was basically like a big block party, with food stands, music, dancing, and many folks dressed up in their traditional Japanese outfits, the summer yukata for women and a similar fashion for the men. We had a great time enjoying some traditional culture, complete with a tour guide in the form of Sai and Yoko.

After we got there, Sai and Yoko plied us with food...delicious wonton soup and yaki-soba, and rice balls on a stick. And a beer to wash it down. As it was a pretty hot day, the beer (Kirin, if you must know) was the perfect touch. And, contrasting with the US, it was no problem to just wander around with an open container...(you also see it down by the beach from time to time). As we sat and ate in a parking lot filled with others eating, we just caught up on news, and watched people. At one point, Sai and Yoko's friend and her little daughter came up...We didn't think there could be a cuter little girl, dressed up in her red yukata...until another little angel came wandering up. She was the daughter of an American from NYC and his Japanese wife who live up in Tokyo. We all chatted a while, before heading off to watch some of the entertainment.

There was lots of traditional dancing, starting with a Japanese samba song (you read that right...samba sung in Japanese) that all the kids boogied down to. They played it at least five times, and the kids would get out there and wave little wands with shiny tinsel on the end. After that, the local men brought out some sort of big metal looking things on the ends of sticks, and flailed them around to the beat of drumming. There was even a little boy with his own metal-thingy-ended-stick swinging it around as well.

After that, the local portable shrine was brought in and bounced around on the shoulders of men in pajama-like suits. Apparently, the god inside the shrine likes to be bounced up and down in time with the drums and chanting.

After the shrine was put up, the drummers and fluters came out. First, kids (junior high school) and then adults...It was amazing to watch. The syncopated rhythm was mesmerizing, and the way that they all kept on the same, complicated beat was incredible. They obviously spent a lot of time practicing for the show. When the adults started banging away, the stage was actually moving so much, that the kids who had previously drummed were pressed into service keeping it in place.

After the drummers finished, we started for home. As we parted with Sai-san, he waved and bye-ed us until we were out of site. According to my Japanese head start teacher, this is pretty typical. You don't just say "bye" and leave. You keep waving and byeing and waving and byeing. It's a sign that you're really sorry to see your friends go. For us, it was a touching way to end a really fun evening.