Catching Up

It’s been two weeks since I last blogged and quite frankly I don’t know where to start! In the last two weeks I’ve been to Nagoya twice, danced in the bonodori, 盆踊り、 (festival), worn a yukata for the first time ever and bought a bicycle. It’s been busy, but now I am on a little break as we have a few days of for the National Holiday, O-bon.

Last week I was asked if I wouldn’t like to go to a bondori dance lesson with a classmate. Hardly knowing what to expect, I went along. The Kimono-clad dance instructor was a sprightly grandmother who taught the group a few traditional dances and kept us moving for most of the two hour class. Most of the girls had taken a lesson before, so I had some catching up to do. Describing the dances is difficult, but generally they were all done in a circle. Each dancer moves around the circle or into and out of it. We clapped and waved our arms about in certain ways. One dance was done with a fan in one hand. It was fun, even if I hardly knew what to do. (See the short video of the festival below)

That evening, I was invited to go with some others on the following Sunday to the dance instructor's house to be suited up in a yukata (summer kimono) and attend the festival that night. (I didn’t know that I was expected to dance in public as well, but that turned out to be the case!) Before going I had to buy a yukata and some shoes to go with it. Catherine, a classmate, and I went to a near by shopping center on our bicycles and went to ever shop there looking for a good price. I eventually picked one out that came with the obi and ties. I had to go elsewhere for shoes and ended up getting rather formal looking geta, but they were reduced to $10 and fit, which is a challenge here where feet tend to be very small.

On Sunday I and 3 other students were picked up by the instructor and driven to her home, which was a lovely Japanese style house, complete with tiny formal garden and tatami rooms. We were served cold tea and then each of us was helped into our outfits by the teacher and her daughter, while the granddaughter looked on in delight. As soon as that was done, we posed for pictures and trotted off to the festival where the dancing had already begun.

At first I hung back and just watched, but after a few dances the instructor came and got me moving in one of the sequences she had taught us. Soon I was getting more comfortable with the dancing and a little less self-conscious. Everywhere I go, I am the only older foreigner and am looked at by children with surprise. Adults are too polite to stare, but kids know a freak when they see one! Still, by the end of the night I had received enough appreciative and encouraging looks to feel ok about being out there dancing in a rather clinging and hot outfit. In general, I think the Japanese appreciate it when a foreigner is interested enough in their culture to join in like that. I’m the one who has to get over being shy about it! Overall, it was great fun. I love seeing everyone out in their traditional garb dancing and eating and being so Japanese! The little children are just TOO cute!