Dream Yosakoi Festival

The annual Dream Yosakoi Festival was held from October 31 to November 1, 2009 at various locations in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan.

Over 4,000 dancers performed in this traditional team dance with teams as large as 100.

This style of choreographed dance is highly energetic, combining traditional Japanese dance movements with modern music.

It was quite a windy day, so the large team flags were flying in full flutter, providing an excellent backdrop to the team’s colorful costumes.

One of the defining aspects of yosakoi dance is the use of naruko, which are small wooden clappers that are held in the hands of each dancer.

Finally, below are a few videos to give you a sense of energy in this type of Japanese folk dance (sorry that the sound is awful, as it was a very windy day as you can tell).

Earlier this summer, I also attended the Super Yosakoi and the Fukuro Matsuri featuring the same type of dance.

Kawasaki Halloween Parade

Last weekend, the annual Kawasaki Halloween Parade was held on a sunny and warm Saturday (October 31) afternoon near Tokyo with over 3,000 costumed participants and many more spectators.

The main festivities, including the start and end of the parade, was located in La Cittadella, a European style shopping center.  Did I mention it was very crowded?

Although there were a few children, the majority of the participants were adults, and there were many creative and colorful costumes.

The participants were separated into 3 groups of about 1,000 with a float leading the way.

In the past few years, it seems that Halloween has become more popular in Tokyo (and Japan) and this very colorful parade was crowded indeed.

Below are a few videos of the parade.

At the end of the parade, the highly anticipated costume contest awarded the best costumes in several categories.

Below are pictures of some of the winners taken before the parade started.

There were more festivities in the evening, including a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, as the ghouls and goblins partied through the night.

How did you spend your Halloween?

HD Videos of Tokyo and Kyoto

Two recent high quality HD videos from YouTube by egawauemon featuring Tokyo and Kyoto filmed in 2009 using a Canon 5D Mk2 digital camera (EF 24mm F2.8 lens) with a Glidecam HD-2000 for hand-held camera stabilization.

Both videos are 10 minutes long, shot during different times of the day (morning, afternoon and evening), with no music soundtrack so you can hear the actual sights and sounds.

The Tokyo video was shot in the summer of 2009 featuring different areas such as Tsukiji, Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno and Meiji Jingu Shrine.

 

The Kyoto video was shot in early autumn 2009 featuring Gion, Ninen-Zaka, Kiyamachi, Sagano, Nishiki Market and Pontocho, as well as several famous temples and shrines (Kinkaku-Ji Temple, Ginkaku-ji Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kiyomizudera Temple).

 

This is an excellent compilation of these two great cities in Japan.  Enjoy!

Applying Makeup in the Subway

Every month, Tokyo Metro posts a new subway manner poster in their station as I wrote about last year in a blog post titled Tokyo Subway Manner Posters.  For some strange reason, I look forward to the first day of every month when the latest poster appears (yea, my life is boring).  You can find it here, along with all the older posters if you are interested.

Well, this month (November 2009, below left) features a reminder to apply makeup at home, not on the trains, a similar poster appeared over a year ago (May 2008, below right).

Anyway, below are two pictures that I took with my cell phone camera – I guess they didn’t read the posters.

Have you seen women applying their makeup in the subway or trains in your neck of the woods?  If yes, is it a common occurrence?  Personally, it does not bother me, but then I am probably either sleeping or watching a podcast on my iTouch.

Koto Kumin Matsuri

Koto Kumin Matsuri (Koto Citizens’ Festival) was held at Kiba Park in Tokyo on October 17-18, 2009.  It was a sunny and warm autumn weekend, a perfect day for a festival.  This festival covered the entire Kiba Park, which is huge, with a river and bridge separating the north and south areas.

As typical of Japanese festivals, there were lots of food and drinks stalls scattered throughout the park, as well as fruit and vegetables stands and a flea market.

This was a family oriented event so there were lots of activities for the little ones.

There were several stages throughout the park, offering different types of entertainment for young and old alike, from marching bands …

to musical rock bands (they were singing Rolling Stones songs) …

and traditional bon odori singing …

as well as hawaiian dancing …

… and giant (not really) Japanese monsters and robots fighting it out for world dominance for good measure!

Along with the stages, there were also a number of more mobile (street, or park in this case) performers.

The highlight of the festival was a number of Japanese folk arts performances by local citizens. The Kiyari and Kiyari-Nenbutsu are traditional chanting performed by lumbermen.

Sunamura-Bayashi is traditional festival folk music played in the Edo district, played by three kinds of Japanese traditional percussions and a horizontal bamboo flute.

Shishimai is a version of the Lion Dance practiced in Japan (originally included danced involving other animal symbols, including deer).

Tekomai is a traditional geisha parade wearing male costume such as men’s old hair style, male clothing and waraji (straw sandals).

The Fukagawa-no-Chikara-mochi originated from warehouse workers who carried rice bags, Japanese sake barrels and other heavy goods. 

They participated in competitions for their skill and strength.

2009 Global Gender Gap Report

A few days ago, the World Economic Forum officially published its 2009 Global Gender Gap Report which gives insight into the equality divides between women and men in 134 countries around the world.  The top 10 are:

1. Iceland
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. N. Zealand
6. S. Africa
7. Denmark
8. Ireland
9. Philippines
10. Lesotho

The top 4 are Nordic countries, while the Philippines remained the top Asian country.  According to the report, “more than two-thirds have posted gains in overall index scores, indicating that the world in general has made progress towards equality between men and women, although there are countries that continue to lose ground.”

Japan was ranked 75th, one of the lowest among developed nations, but “having climbed 23 places in the rankings, boosted by a narrower the gap among legislators, senior officials, and managers as well as professional and technical workers’ positions.  Japan is now closer to the OECD average on this variable.”

Below is a YouTube video is a short interview with Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2009 and Head of the Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.

Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony

The 2nd annual Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony was held in two locations in Tokyo to share the ancient Japanese tea culture with the citizens of Tokyo as well as with visitors to the metropolis.

The first event was held at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum on October 10-11 followed by a similar event at the Hama Rikyu Gardens (which we attended) on October 17-18. 2009.  Both venues are of great historical importance to Tokyo and are well-known for their serene scenic beauty (Note:  Future blog post about the Hama Rikyu Gardens).

The Tokyo Grand Tea Ceremony provides participants with the opportunity to casually participate in a cha-kai (tea ceremony).  Participants can choose to take part in a chaseki indoor tea ceremony or nodate outdoors Tea Ceremony under the autumn sky (referred to as a nodate tea ceremony).

The event also featured on-stage performances of traditional Japanese music and dances by geisha.  There was a koto and shimisen performance …

… followed by several dances performed by four very elegant geishas wearing lovely autumn kimonos.

A special short course about tea ceremony was also held on stage by an American tea master, who has been living in Japan for about 8 years and spoke in both Japanese and English.

We attended the special nodate outdoor tea ceremony for visitors and foreigners held in English.

Before drinking the tea, you should eat a sweet (in our case, a halloween treat) to balance the bitter matcha tea.

 

It was a wonderful way to enjoy a perfect autumn day of Japanese tea ceremony, surrounded by nature in the middle of Tokyo.

 

Ginger Ale KitKat

In my previous post, I tried Pepsi Azuki which is a mix of cola and red bean.  Well, I guess I didn’t have enough, so this time it is a combination of chocolate and soda – the result is Ginger Ale KitKat. Only in Japan!

Just like the Sweet Potato KitKat which I tried earlier this year, this one is also a white chocolate covered KitKat. Well, it still tastes like a regular KitKat, with a hint of ginger ale.  Weird combination, but not too bad.

Finally, do read Tokyo Five’s complete coverage of the many different Kitkats you can find in Japan or Pass The Chopsticks’ Kit Kat Kount.

Pepsi Azuki

Earlier this summer, I tried Pepsi Shiso and didn’t like it at all.  Well, Pepsi has just created a new flavor called Pepsi Azuki as Tokyo Five wrote about a few weeks ago.

Azuki is a red bean (hence, the red color of the drink) which is popular in East Asia, especially in China and Japan as red bean paste and a filling in sweets.  According to Wikipedia, “in Japan, rice with azuki beans is traditionally cooked for auspicious occasions. Azuki beans are also used to produce amanattō, and as a popular flavour of ice cream.” (Picture below of azuki bean also courtesy of Wikipedia).

The whole family tried it with mixed opinions.  My son didn’t like it, but my wife and I didn’t think it was too bad (certainly better than Pepsi Shiso for sure).  I do love red beans and it does somewhat have this taste in the drink, but it is still strange to have this flavor in a cola.

In Japan, I guess we should look forward to next flavored cola drink.  Have you tried Pepsi Azuki and what did you think of it?

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center (NYC)

Partially utilizing the site of the Olympic Village constructed for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center (NYC) has been used as an education institution for youth under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology since 1965.

Located 10 minutes from Shinjuku, with both nature-rich Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu nearby, facilities at NYC are used for educational/exchange activities and sporting/cultural activities.

Approximately 1.6M people used this facility in 2004.

The NYC aims to promote youth education and healthy nurturing of youth in Japan. 

Its “activities include the organization of various training courses for young people and persons related to youth education, the promotion of cooperation and links between institutions and groups connected to youth education, and provision of grants to groups engaged in youth education.”

My son volunteered to help special needs youths to learn and play basketball.