Hanagasa

HANAGASA is here and ringing distorted, yet catchy traditional Japanese music through the speakers all the way up and down the main drag. This is an annual festival, thousands of people participate from all walks of life and do different variations on the same traditional hat dance. They use a typical straw hat that you might see a rice farmer wear ~ apparently this was the traditional dance that people used to do after they successfully harvested the rice. It's a lovely story ~ though I can't picture farmers doing this. If it were me, I might use my hat to dunk in the river and pour cold water over my head. Or maybe to cover my privates as I lay naked on the kitchen floor cooling off with a cold beer after a hard day. But...hat dance...okay. I'm down with that. In any case, it was LOVELY.

Kanon, one of my youngest students, came in sporting her new kimono. Lisa Mee was one of the many participants and pulled off great hair and purple glitter in style. Miki stopped by for a quick hi before she had to go back an join the orange group. She used to be a part of our office staff and was always laughing. (I'm still secretly hoping that she will teach me how to play tennis someday!) There were retired people, business people, children, hip hop dancers, geisha-like dancers, young guys (I wish western men knew just how cool it is to do hat dances, but most 16 year old guys I knew wouldn't be caught dead out there), old guys....and soldiers.

The soldiers really struck me. They were doing a dance with a long pole and streamers, the same combination that many soldiers do with guns. I prefer the steamers.