Festival On, Wayne!

There are a lot of things that Japan does right. Sushi, cleaning, convenience stores, and seasonal produce are the first things that come to mind. I can’t get over their seasonal produce. Persimmons anyone?

But Japan also festivals it up like there’s no tomorrow. 

Even in a small, rural area like Miyazaki, we have really fun local festivals pretty much monthly and I always enjoy the chance to get out and see what folks in the community have been working so hard to put together.

A few weeks ago, some of my fellow ALTs starred in one of the local Hyuga festivals, so a big group of us came out to cheer them on. 

I wasn’t able to make it for the first night’s dance (I had a neck spasm? Am I eighty years old?), so I missed Lindsay and Cameron’s assuredly mesmerizing performance. 

However, I got to see Jodi playing taiko drums and stealing the show. We were all very proud. 

Jodi rocking her Taiko uniform

Afterwards, all the festival participants circled around a giant light up sumo man doing a choreographed dance. I took that as an opportunity so I jumped in too, even though I had no idea what I was doing. 

Nothing makes me want to dance like a sumo booty!

The dance consisted of movements mimicking different daily activities in the life of a Japanese farmer (or at least, that's what it seemed like to me). I was trying to pull off the “sun rise, tend to the rice field” dance move and smacked someone in the face.

They were cool with it. As they say in Wayne’s World, “Festival on, Garth!”