Saturday, June 9, 2012

Places to Go and People to See

Ted is on an overnight camping trip in the forest with first year outdoor life students.  They left at 1 pm yesterday and are to be back at 9 am today.  I’m hoping he gets back on time because we have Places to go and People to see.

The Place we want to go is to Odori Park in Sapporo for the "Yosakoi Souran" Matsuri.  This is the description, in English, for the event:

Every year Sapporo holds a "Yosakoi" dance festival, known as the "Yosakoi Souran Matsuri". The original Yosakoi festival begain in the city of Kōchi, down South in the Shikoku region in 1954. Since then, it has become popular throughout Japan, with many Yosakoi festivals held in a number of prefectures, and this Sapporo Yosakoi Souran Matsuri, began in 1992, is one of the most well-known Yosaki festivals in the country.

Many Yosakoi dance teams from all over Hokkaido, as well as places such as Okinawa and Chiba, will perform their routines over the 5 days over 19 different venues, either on stage or as a parade through the city. There will be judging and contests for some dance performances.

The People we especially want to see are the dance team which includes one of our students.  He performed with his group on Wednesday evening and qualified for the Saturday competition.  You can see the group's Wednesday performance on this You Tube video.


The performance begins at 12 noon.  It’s a half hour walk to the train station, and hour and a half on the train, then another half hour or so walk to the park where the event is being held.  You can see why I am hoping the camping trip ends on time! We will still be able to enjoy other performances the rest of the day, but we don't want to miss seeing our student perform.

(Here is the website for the event http://www.yosakoi-soran.jp/ )

Recycling get straightened out
This recycling shed near our apartment was slightly off balance and shaky, probably from the snow this winter. A crane and a bunch of men came out to fix it.  It took most of the afternoon, but now we are safe and the recycling shed won’t fall on anyone who tries to put bottles and cans in it.  Do you notice the big boots and white gloves?  These are standard for anyone doing any kind of work outdoors in Japan.

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