As I start back to work tonight after a week of Summer vacation I feel extremely rested as I was able to sleep in each morning and stay in my air conditioned apartment watching the Beijing Olympics during day time hours, although I took a couple of day trips to local areas before the games started and I visited Minato Mirai (Yokohama) one evening.
This coming weekend Koenji has its largest festival, the Awa Odori (Street Dancing Festival), which was modelled on the famous one in Tokushima Shikoku, and now rates as the largest and most popular dance festival in Tokyo in fact I believe it’s the second largest such festival in Japan
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The Awa Odori is held on the last weekend in August each year and this year falls on Saturday August 23rd and Sunday August 24th – with informal practice on the Friday night August 22nd.
This festival is incredibly exciting and exceedingly very popular so you need to arrive no later than 5:30pm to get a good place to watch the parade of dancers and bands. The dancing gets on the way at around 6:30pm, although there is a stage setup on the southern side of the railway station where dance groups take turns at performing for the public earlier than this they are wonderful but not as exciting as the street dancing that goes down the PAL arcade (it is fun in here as the sound is captured within the mall and on lookers become extraordinarily excited) and then it heads up Koenji Look.com to Ome Kaido on which it turns left and continues along Ome Kaido (passed Shin Koenji station) and then turns left into Konnan Dori and goes back down to Koenji station. This route is generally the same each year although last year it was extended into Central Street (northside). In addition many youngsters had their own mini dance festival in the street fronting the Olympic store.
It is maybe smart to bring some refreshments and food with you as all the supermarkets, convenient stores etc are crowded all day and the stock is rapidly depleted, however there are many side street stores set up to provide drinks and food which continue to operate into the late night, as well, Koenji does have many restaurants etc where you can go to but you will need to get there well before the street dancing comes to an end.
The atmosphere is electric and stimulating.
Please check out the following site: http://www.koenji-awaodori.com/ja/koenji/ which has many fabulous pictures etc.
Koenji in addition to being famous for recycle clothing is also well known for its “live house” culture, in particular rock, so after the dance festival you can have a pleasant night listening to live rock or just drinking the night away at many of the outside restaurants,bars etc
If you want to experience a truly mind blowing, different type of festival you should put Koenji’s Awa Odori into your diary. Handsome men and attractive women dancing in traditional costumes surely will give you goose bumps and excite every bone within your body. I love it!
Ken,
We also have similar festivals in Shiga, but it sounds like Koenji is a really ‘genki’ city with a lot of energy and good people promoting great events. I’m envious!
Edward, SSE Ohtsu
Ken,
It sounds like a lot of fun. Looking forward to your next post.
Cheers,
Al, SSE Okamoto
The rain spoilt the festival to some degree but there were still thousands of people out to watch the dancing and participate in the carnival like festivities.
The parade commenced at 6:30 with drummers playing from 6pm and finishing at 9:30pm. It was very exciting however it was so wet on the Sunday that I gave it a miss as there were just too many people and umbrellas to negotiate. Que sera sera. Here’s to next year.