Omotesando Harajuku Outdoor Omatsuri

Last weekend, Omotesando Harajuku held its outdoor festival beside Meiji temple and within Yoyogi park. Here are some photos from the walk up to the festivities, in front of the stage and in the park. We left after half a dozen performances but before it started to rain. Again, there were a lot of colourful yukata in view. It was a fun day with tonnes of colourful costumes. Most of these were blind shots with my arms extended way over my head, meaning that I had no idea what was in the viewfinder when I snapped the shot. I cropped most of the photos for more interesting views, but it was packed and very difficult to get a shot.

A very colourful dance troupe.

I believe these guys were from Hiroshima. Some very young dance members in the troupe!

I saw these guys walking to the stage on Omotesando street.

I don't remember much about this dance troupe as I spent most of the time trying to get a decent photo of them without all the heads getting in the way. I do remember thinking that their pants looked funny.

This was a very interesting dance troupe. I kept wondering if one of them would lose their hats.

Taken from the overpass bridge, where tonnes of signs explicitly tell you in Japanese that you can't take photos of the Omatsuri from the bridge. And in case you couldn't read Japanese, there was also a guy paid to stand on the bridge all afternoon to shoo troublesome tourists and photo opportunists like me away.

I snapped about 100 shots hoping to get one with the giant flag in action, no heads in the way and fun expressions on the dancers faces. This was the best I could get. Oh well. Next time, I'll do what the pros did and bring my own step ladder.

Every since my own misguided attempts at self-dressing in summer yukata and self-tying the obi bow, I've been obsessed with the double ribbon tie of the obi. Although, I think the next time I wear a Yukata, I will attempt the simple one bow style again and just aim for less wrinkles.

These girls were a very modern dance troupe. They danced to Japanese reggae. Never saw anything like it or heard lyrics quite like it before.

Look at 'em all shaking them things all in unison!

I never did get to see these guys dance. This was the dance troupe assembling in Yoyogi park and getting ready for their big dance number. I wonder how restrictive their movements would have been in all those yukata.