とうかさん Part II

Now for the second part of とうかさん. I meant to write this a long time ago, but procrastination and other things intervened, and I'm writing this long after the fact. But I suppose if you're reading this, this doesnt bother you so much.

The main reason I wanted to go to this festival was because there was going to be a 盆踊り大会 or bon dance every night at the festival. I've been to a few dances in Hawaii, but never one in Japan. What kind of dances would they perform? Which songs would be played? There were many questions I had, and I was excited to finally experience a real Japan bon dance.

Surprisingly, there was enough of an overlap between Japan and Hawaii that I wasnt completely lost. Of the songs they played, I knew 花火音頭, 昭和音頭, and ドンパン節 to name a few. But as to be expected, the かた that they used to dance here in Japan are very different from the ones in Hawaii. ドンパン節 was the closest to what we do in Hawaii; I had almost no problems with that one. But 昭和 and 花火 were quite different. They clapped when we didnt, or used different poses than what we used. It was a bit difficult to get used to; once you get so used to dancing a certain way, it's hard to break that frame of mind, you know? But you'll forgive me if I say that I quickly picked it up. Naturally though, there were songs that we dont do in Hawaii. A few, like まりと殿様 and 日本チャチャチャ I am vaguely familiar with because I've seen this video before (not quite the same, but similar かた), but there were others that I've never heard before. But it was fun! What struck me was the difference in structure in the dance. I'm not talking about which かた are used where; but how the かた are structured, or which ones are used. (This might get technical, so I wont be mad if you skip the remainder of this paragraph.) The biggest difference was that in Hawaii, we use the moon かた　and あけかざし a lot. You very rarely dance very long without it. But that was not the case here. There was a lot of that hand-holding かた and the open かた (similar to moon, but not round). Another difference that struck me was that they did not respect symmetry in the dance. In Hawaii, if you do something on the right, you do it on the left. And if you repeat, you repeat once on the right, and once on the left. Or when it comes to walking, if a multi-step かた takes you to the right, you repeat towards the left. But here, they did not do that. In Hawaii, there is a かた in which you use your right hand to present and turn around. I automatically assumed that when you switch to your left hand, you go back the way you came; not so in Japan. It was difficult, but after a while, I noticed that they would switch to the left hand, but complete the circle. That was such a curveball. Of course, there were others, but since I dont know the proper names, explaining it is a bit difficult. But trust me, my mind was open to ideas that I have never thought possible in the world of bon dance.

During one of the many breaks, I happened to sit next to an older woman. This was partly coinicidence, but from what she said, I imagine it would have happened anyway. This woman was one of the ladies in the center, which I rightly assumed meant that she was a leader. She mentioned that she had seen me dancing, and was curious as to why I was so good (a lie), and where I was from. I mangled up my response, but she got the gist of what I tried to say: that I was from Hawaii, where we have bon dance too, which is where I learned it. Surprised, she called over a bunch of the other ladies and told them my story. Unfortunately, they didnt introduce themselves, so I have no idea what their names are, but I learned that they're the 日本民謡研究会 or the Society for Research on Japanese Folk Music (lofty, arent we?). They're based out of Nagoya, but there was a branch in Hiroshima. The leader of which, I was amused, looked a bit like the leader of my dance group in Hilo. I would like to join their group, or at least go to a few practices, if only to learn dances that I dont already know, but unfortunately, I did not grab any contact information for them. Googling did give me a hit, but according to the map, it looks like it's a bit out of the ways. Furthermore, I only have a little over a month left. ugh, more decisions to make!

After the dance, I meant to talk to the ladies again, but the following happened. As I was walking towards the ladies, I was approached by several people. Basically, it was the same stuff as usual; Where are you from (ハワイ？！), why can you dance so good, blah blah blah. But one guy was a little...more forceful. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, 「ちょっと話聞かせてくれない？」 or "Can I ask you something?" I put a little more faith in ちょっと because his 話 was anything but ちょっと. After the usual stuff, he asked me directly if I would like to go to some island in the Inland Sea for a real country bon dance. Since it was so far away, I was invited to stay at his wife's parents house. Now, I dont know if it's an American thing, or if it's a Hawaii thing, or what, but generally speaking, I dont stay in the homes of people I'VE NEVER EVEN MET. Dont get me wrong, that was awful nice of him, but really? I had never met the guy before, and I was not about to go to some island in the sea with him. He tried to get me to agree, saying that the bon dances there were unlike any I had ever seen (盆踊りは趣味じゃないですか), and that it would be a great thing to experience. After I said I'd think about it for the millionth time, he gave me his business card, and took my phone number. I must admit, he did have a point; any bon dance in Japan would be different from any I have actually been to, a country one even more so. But to be quite honest, it sounded a little too "Burning Man" or something. I dont want to be murdered or something! I still havent contacted him, but I am thinking that I will have to send him something saying I must decline his invitation. Perhaps if I knew him more, I would go, but a complete stranger is something quite different.

My bon dance experience in Japan was both good and bad. It was good in that I was dancing songs I never would dance in Hawaii. And even the songs we do in Hawaii, we do differently. And dont tell anyone, but it was nice to be complimented by Japanese people. And I was invited to a country bon dance, where I'd probably be doing dances not done anywhere else in Japan. The bad was not getting contact information and being invited by strangers. But that's life, isnt it?

This concludes my blogging regarding とうかさん 2011. Back to our regular programming.

New Year's in Japan!

Much more elaborate than usual. But also, much more fake than usual. But I still like it. =)


あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いいたします。
Happy New Year's everyone!
^_^

Like Christmas, New Year's this year was very different from previous years. I didnt have ozoni that mother made, nor any kind of mochi at all. And more importantly, I didnt spend it with my family at all. But on the plus side, I did watch the entirety of Kohaku for once, and also I went hatsumode!

New Year's Eve was a pretty low key event for me. During the day, I attempted to clean up my room, which is slowly getting messy again. A few of the other HUSAs got shelves for their rooms, and I'm beginning to wonder if I should get some too. But the main thing I did last night was watching 紅白歌合戦 Kohaku Uta Gassen. For those of you not in the know, it's a big end of the year concert that NHK hosts. Male and female singers are split into two teams (White team for men, Red team for women) and compete. While there is a panel of judges, votes from the audience in NHK Hall, as well as the general public, are counted to determine the winner. It's a pretty big deal, imho. In Hawaii, I had seen it performed before, because both KikuTV and NGN broadcast it. But because of location and licensing, what's shown in Japan is slightly different from what I've seen in Hawaii. So it was a nice change to have the end of the contest to be near midnight on 大晦日.

This year's lineup was a bit different from years past. For one, the hosts were different from the last five years, almost. Nakama Yukie was a judge, when she had usually been the Red Team host. And instead of Nakai Masahiro, the White Team was represented by 嵐 Arashi, a pretty interesting idol group. But what struck me most interesting and a bit sad, was that the singers for each team were different from years previous. There were a couple of regulars, like Wada Akiko, Hikawa Kiyoshi, Koda Kumi (!!!), and Kitajima Saburo. But there were a lot of missing singers. I always do Fuji Ayako's songs at karaoke, but she was absent again this year. So was Mikawa Kenichi, who always has the most gender-bending performances. I usually look forward to Nakashima Mika and Otsuka Ai, but they didnt show up either. As sad as I am that I didnt get to see them perform, I'm happy for them. While it is an honor to be invited to perform on Kohaku, that means that they dont get to spend New Year's with their families. They're human too, and I imagine they like to spend time with their families too.

As for the songs that were performed, a lot of them were the most moving I have ever heard. Not gonna lie, I ended up crying a lot during this year's performance. Kobayashi Sachiko's song, お母ちゃんのひとり言, was about a child reminising about their mother. How their mother may have scolded them when they were younger, but they still loved her for it. And 嵐 performed a song, that I dont remember its name, but it was about ふるさと, or one's hometown. Having not seen my hometown for about three or so months, it was a little heartachey to hear about going back home and cherishing where you're from. But by far the most moving song that was on, was 植村花菜 Uemura Kana's トイレの神様 "Toire no Kamisama". Translated, it means "God of the Toilet", and it is a strange title. But the lyrics were just so beautiful. When she was a young girl, she spent a lot of time at her grandmother's house, and helped out doing chores there. Her grandmother told her, that the reason why she had to keep the toilet clean was because inside lived a beautiful kami. And that by cleaning it everyday, one day she could become a beautiful lady just like the kami. Later, her grandmother was hospitalized, and the day after she visited her grandmother, she passed away. And even though she wasnt the best grandchild, she feels that her grandmother waited special to see her one last time before she left. I have a feeling that this song is true, because she really did start crying when she was performing. As someone who was really close to their grandmother, I really felt something with this song. I think of all the performances, I really enjoyed hers the most.


This is the music video for that song. Maybe one day I'll translate the lyrics. You interested?

Today, New Year's Day, I decided to go to the local shrine and actually do 初詣 hatsumode, or the first visit to a temple in a new year. While there are shrines in Hawaii, I have never actually gone to them, much less do the whole 初詣 thing. So while I'm here, I decided to actually do it. It was actually a lot of fun!



This is the shrine we went to, 御建神社 Midate Jinja. It's located behind the train station here, and part of another srhine complex thingy called 松尾神社 Matsuo Jinja. There was a really long line to get to the shrine, and normally, that wouldnt be so bad. However, this being in the middle of winter, it was FREEZING, so waiting was a bit of a pain. Me and a friend that came with me stood in that line for a while before we were up to the temple. After carefully observing the 日本人 in front of us, we threw our money, rang the bell, and prayed for the coming year. While up there, we also got 御神籤 omikuji, which are basically fortunes. My kanji isnt so good, but between the two of us, (hopefully) we were able to read and understand them. They didnt sound too bad, so we kept them. We also took a drink of the sake that was up there. Apparently, the 日本人 behind us were amazed to see my 白人 friend drink so much sake without problems. We also bought お守り omamori, which are good luck charms. I got a normal one that I'm going to give away as omiyage, and a card one for myself. My friend also bought some お守り, as well as a 神矢. She got it with a little bit of hesitation, because we didnt know what those things were called. I have seen them before, so I knew they were for luck, but I've never bought one myself. Also, my dictionary on my iPod didnt give a reading, so we were kinda shooting in the dark with かみや kamiya, which is the reading for those two kanji. I thought that since we got it, but MS isnt accepting it as a proper input for it. So I have no idea. Haha, oh well.
XD



Like Christmas, I missed out on doing the usual routine for New Year's. I missed another "family holiday", and missed out on some favorite traditions. But I did make up for it with things that I have never done before. While I usually fall asleep halfway through Kohaku, I actually stayed awake through it all. I even got a few good cries out of it. On New Year's Day, instead of spending it lying around the house and calling Aunty, I went on my first hatsumode (is it my 初初詣? XD) and had a grand old time. 2011 surely started out wonderful. I can only hope that the rest of it will be as enjoyable!