Obon kicked off last night and Team Awkward Gaijin danced the Bon Odori without too many embarrassments. Jen and Rob joined Maggie and I for the event, but before it started we had to get yukata for the other three at Mipple. This turned out to be an ordeal in itself. After Maggie and Jen carefully chose one, or in Rob's case just picked one of the shelf, Maggie made the mistake of phoning Masako and the kimono fitter hearing a Japanese speaker who knew exactly what we needed, asked to be put on to her. Bad idea. Even though we were running late an yet to have dinner those two discussed bits and bobs we needed for 15 minutes. Needless to say we went hungry that night. After we assembled back at the upstairs of the Fukusuke, Masako put our yukata on us and insisted we pack towels around our waists to bulk ourselves out. I've never had to do this before when wearing a yukata, but Masako insisted we do it because traditionally the preferred style for women wearing any kind of kimono is to have a straight waist without any curves whatsoever, and Masako wouldn’t take no as an answer so the big gaijins got bigger. Because we were running out of time, Masako enlisted the help of one of the Fukusuke staff who was probably a relative of Mama-san and was an expert at dressing people in kimono, which got us out of there by 6.30pm ready for the Bon Odori. It was humid and raining lightly as we hurried to the open festival grounds, fattened up and sweating with all the extra padding under the tightly bound yukata. As if a higher power was looking out for my mental health, the rain stopped as we started to get into the dancing. According to Mama-san it was raining in the next town where they were having fireworks so we were luckily just out of the rains range for the whole night. We arrived to see the last half of the opening ceremony and joined the circle ready for the Miyazu Odori (the one we actually did know). The Awkward Gaijin team never really formed as there were two circles of dancers, the serious teams who had spent months practising in the middle wearing their teams yukatas and their flag-bearer in the front, while the 'freestyle' dancers danced around the outside, out of the way.
For the most part we did the Miyazu Odori, and when the music changed into the 'Ninja Dance' (we found out from one of the professional dancers it is actually the kata (method) of samurai swordplay minus the sword and changed slightly to become a dance), I took part in that too as it was slow and used straightforward footwork. But when it changed again into the overly fast and overly complicated 'Sleeve Dance' I tried for a couple of minutes then bowed my way out of the circle to take photos of everyone else while the professional dancers laughed at my unco-ness. The pattern of the three songs was repeated throughout the night which gave us time to refine our moves (or finally learn them in Rob's case). The Japanese onlookers were genuinely impressed with our moves, so we heard later. The Japanese people stuck to the real, precise, straightforward moves of the original dance, but I noticed all three of us gaijin girls ended up inadvertently embellishing the simple hand and foot movements to fit a more western style of dancing. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries shortly after we started but Jen gave me hers to use as she didn't really like taking photos, so I went snap happy and even asked to be allowed up the stairs to the raised hut that housed the musicians during their snack break. They invited me in and when I expressed my interest in the shamisen, the senior shamisen player took up his instrument again and played a very fast-paced tune to show it off.
Throughout the entire evening we had locals taking photos of us as Maggie said they would, and at the end many of them wanted a photo of us with their families, parents, kids you name it. The photographer from the local newsletter was also there and she took our photo for that, so it looks like I'm going to feature twice in this months edition after I did a self introduction article for it last week. The photographer actually dropped by an hour ago to give Maggie and I the photos she took of us, and they're not bad considering we were dancing non-stop for several hours in the hot and humid Miyazu air and looked like we had just crawled out of the backside of a rhino. Hunger gnawing at us from the inside, we then descended onto the food stalls in a big hungry mob and devoured every piece of fried chicken and chips in sight, then washed it down with flavoured shaved ice, of which I've decided to get a machine to make it for myself. Maybe I could make some and sell it to the old patrons of the Fukusuke when they're off their face and willing to hand out as much money as they have. We bumped into Nishihara-san with her two toddlers, wearing her odori team's yukata, bearing a fan with “Odori Tatsujin” (Dance Master) emblazoned across the front. We also caught up with Nishihara-san's friend Kaori who works across the road at the city offices, who although wasn't wearing a yukata then, wore one with the rest of the city office staff during the day when I saw them as I picked up my Alien Registration Card this morning.
The night went much better than I had anticipated, mostly because I wasn't forced to do the Sleeve Dance like I thought I would be and because there was a nice breeze blowing throughout the grounds so we could breathe despite the pressing humidity. Tonight, again, we don our yukatas for the final night of Obon – the fireworks. A couple of other JETs in the area are joining us and Jen is coming back again tonight from Ine, but Masako is out of town tonight so the putting on of the yukatas will be completely in our hands, unless we rope in the Fukesuke staff again. Prepare for the Awkward Gaijin mode again. Maggie and I are hoping to weasel our way out of sitting in the BoE all day by asking Nishihara-san if we can go down to Mipple to get “classroom supplies” (tatami mats to sit on and food for tonight).
See you, I'm off to get “classroom supplies”.
2 hours later.
I am soaked. Kawahara-san decided to bring his super-soaker to the office and have a water fight at lunchtime whilst Nishihara-san bombarded us with water-balloons. If only that happened here, they would be the most likely convicts. No, after Maggie and I bought our tatami mats for the fireworks festival and as we were getting our lunches at McDonald’s (I got the Chicken Fillet-O, like the Fillet O' Fish but with chicken and made for dyslexics), it started raining. Heavily. And I had no umbrella, but being resourceful I took my new tatami mat and draped all two meters of it over myself, like the homeless people do here in Japan. People laughed at my vagabond chic but at least it kept me dry to a point. The rain was pretty incessant so the dryness lasted until the water collecting on the top of the mat ran through the cracks and soaked my head, so I rolled up the mat (while wishing I had a cord to sling it onto my back like the homeless do) and went singing in the rain. I was greeted back at the BoE with faces of sympathy and “kawaisou” (I feel sorry for you), but I didn't have it as bad as Maggie who, although wasn't that wet because she carried an umbrella, her coke had fallen on its side without her knowing it and spilled all throughout the the offices here so she spent 15 minutes trying to clean it up made longer by the fact you have to bob your head and apologise to everyone who walks by. It's just not our day. We heard that if it were to rain tonight they would cancel the fireworks, and put all our trials to get a tatami mat in vain but it's starting to clear up now so we are all go, for now.
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