Sansa Odori Festival = Awesome

After a week of Summer School I'm back and ready to go. So I've finally got a chance to update my photos and I have put some new ones up on flickr for every one to see. Those the choice photos of my day in Tono Valley, home of the Kappa as well as the photos I took at the Sansa Festival last night.



Sansa in one word was awesome. It's a hard feeling to explain but I'm sure other people who are living in Japan for the first time have had it, where a light bulb goes on in your head and you think to yourself: Holy shit, I'm actually in Japan.

The Sansa Odori festival takes place each year in the main street of Morioka City in Iwate. Over the few days that the festival takes place over 20,000 people participate in various events, the most exciting being the parade that takes place each night. Dressed in colorful traditional clothing and carrying drums they dance down the street for three hours nearly non-stop. Why?

Story goes that long ago a Demon of sorts plagued the people of the land. With the pitch forks locked away for the night, and the flaming torches all lost the people turned to the only logical solution. Pray to the right God and he will fix it. So the God and Devil talked long and hard, and finally getting fed up with the Demon's wise cracks the God through sand in his eyes. Cheap, but it gave him the chance to crash tackle that son of a bitch to the ground.
Holding the Demon down and threatening the Demon with a long string of spit slowly descending towards his face the Demon pledged to never terrorize the hicks again. The God dragged little Devil Boy to three stones and forced him to place a hand print upon one of them to seal his pact.


The name Iwate came from this hand print, meaning 'Stone Hand'

Alright, so not exactly how the story goes, but I think its more entertaining this way.

So similar to what I expect happened when I left home, the people threw a huge party, while the Demon stood at the side 'Purse Watching' like a fat kid at a school disco.



Now in the first week of August the city is alive with drum beats and people wearing summer kimono's called Yukata where ever you look. The drums make a tremendous noise, and luckily it's not just random. There is a great deal of practice and choreography put into the dances. Believe me, I tried at the end of the night and looked like a total nutter trying to keep up with the girl who was in front of us. She helped as much as she could but it would seem I'm a bit of lost cause.


The parade is truly special and girls take a great deal of time preparing their robes and making themselves look pretty. I think by time they reach the end of the parade however their make up is long gone after the amount of sweat they have lost. In fact, the men sweat so much and are so enthusiastic that you can see beads flying off their arms and faces as they dance. It's incredible the effort that everyone puts into the Sansa Odori Festival.

Indeed it will be one thing that I never forget because it was so much damn fun.



The night only begins when the festival ends though. From then on it was party time. After the parade Megan, Sarah, Renee and Myself headed back to one of our Japanese teachers houses for drinks. It was hilarious watching their son-in-law pouring a drink that he claims is 50/50 - Vodka and Orange Juice, when I knew perfectly well he had filled that damn glass to the brim with Vodka. I drank it regardless and we talked for ages.




I was surprised how much Japanese I could understand and actually speak back to them. It was the kind of experience I had imagined when I left for Japan.

As the night went on we headed back to the main street to meet up with the other Native Teachers for more drinks. Darts, cold chips and this really awesome curry-omelette rice dish. Combine these for a good time. We spent the rest of the night here, talking away generally about nothing of any importance, before we all staggered off to where ever we were going to sleep that night.

I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all last night.