Niigata Festival

The 8th of August, two days after our public presentation was a good enough reason to unwind and get into festive mood again with the prefectural festival called the Niigata Matsuri, or Niigata Festival. Like I wrote earlier about yukata, festivals and the Japanese, I signed up to join the bon-odori, donning a yukata and soak in the true Japanese environment. In fact most of my classmates did the same thing. The bon-odori dance was taught to us at the Niigata International Friendship Center 2 hours before the real thing. It was not a difficult dance to master and you could get hold of the steps within 20minutes. The rest of it was just repeating. First, it was dressing ourselves up in yukata and then gathering at the hall with other interested participants. It was a good opportunity to meet other people too; both international and local participants. So how do I look in a yukata??

Koketsu sensei with her daughter and grand-daughter

I was really surprised to have met Koketsu sensei at the Friendship Center. Apparently, she teaches nihongo there, on a voluntary basis...something I just knew too!

The moment of truth, whether or not we could put into use, what we have learnt for 20 minutes. It really does not matter, as dancing was one thing, but joining in the crowd was a bigger thing for me.

The crowded Bandai Bridge. This is the typical crowd at the Niigata Festival.

Met new friends along the way. The right most person in the photo is a new found friend from Azerbaijan.

Dancing into the night! The crowd remained strong even after 2 hours of non-stop dancing. Even though I could do marathons and all that, I gave up after an hour doing it. It was really tiring with the heat of summer and dehydration. Apparently, the Japanese are able to continue without any sign of exhaustion. Was really impressed.