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.

Ebisu Eki Natsu Omatsuri

Ebisu station's summer festival happened on the first weekend of August. I've been so busy with learning Japanese that I haven't been diligent about keeping up this blog. However, I found out about the festival quite by chance. We were sitting in a cafe restaurant in YGP, having dinner before trying to watch Blueberry Nights at the Twilight Cinema festival, when the lady beside us, suddenly and uncharacteristically of the Japanese people, decided to strike up a conversation with us.

"Excuse me, but where are the two of you from?" was her first question. English wasn't quite that good, but half the sentence was in Japanese so I'm taking artistic freedom to translate it all. I responded with, "Canada."

"Both of you are from Canada?" I guess it's that whole Asian look that I have that throws people off. "Yes, both of us." I switch to Japanese. She's surprised. She starts asking all sorts of questions in rapid-fire Japanese. "Sumimasen, motto yukkuri hanashite kudasai. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu." I quickly let her know that I can't speak that quickly and could she kindly oblige. She does.

That's when she tells us about the Ebisu street festival right outside the West exit of the station. "It's happening tonight after 6 pm and tomorrow night as well." We tell her we might show up. She says we should go to experience it. It's so lively and fun - nigiyaka de tanoshii desu. Plus, she's dancing during the festival. So there it was. The plug for herself and her dance troupe.

We say thanks for the info and we would definitely try to get there after our movie was finished. Then we left as I had finished my mango smoothie. Delicious btw. We walked back to watch the movie, but YGP was so packed that it was uncomfortable in most places and the best view we could get was a standing spot only. I didn't want to stand there for more than 2.5 hours to watch the movie.

At this point it was 6 pm. We decide to head towards the station and check out the matsuri. There were tonnes of people. There were tonnes of food stands. I had never seen so much yakisoba all in one place before. I should have taken a photo. As it was, I only had my keitai with me that night and I managed to get only this one almost clear, blind shot of the dancing and the central dance stage. Apparently, this is the same setup that most machi festivals adopt in the summer. My husband went to the one at Oosaki station just last week, and he confirmed the same stage, music and dancing occured. However, the sponsor was San Rio - of Hello Kitty, or Kittychan fame - and they were giving out small San Rio imprinted souvenir dolls and fans. My husband refused to get one for me as he would have to be seen coming back home on the train with the incriminating goods. I think if he really loved me and was resourceful, he would have rented a 5 year for the train ride home. I don't want much eh? :-D

Hina Matsuri, Girl's Festival in March

In March, Japan celebrates what is known as the girls' festival, also known as hina matsuri. This is a very popular festival for girls. In the previous month of February, girls all across Japan, begin making their dolls. Some mountainous regions in Japan actually celebrate this festival at the end of March or at the start of April because the coming of spring occurs a little later. I was lucky to have gone to Miyagi prefecture in March. It seems that in Tokyo, amidst all the hustle and bustle of such a fast pace city, most people seem to forget, or possibly ignore, this very colorful festival. We had to drive into the northern parts of Honshuu island into some smaller towns to be able to appreciate the colorful displays of these dolls.

We had taken the shinkansen (the bullet train) to Sendai City to meet some friends. They have a car and over the weekend they took us to visit a couple of nearby small towns. What's interesting about the small towns, is that the souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, and museums, all have some sort of display showing off their collection of hina matsuri dolls. Below, are a few of the various display dolls. The most common theme, is to have a prince and princess made of bone, hair, and actual fabric. However, as you can see, other materials are also used.


In May, there is apparently a corresponding boys is festival. However, since we stayed in Tokyo and went abroad for a short trip, we missed all displays of the boys dolls.