A couple of days ago, my friend at work, Matt, told me that there would be a festival outside of our home train station, Tsuruse. Today, when I got home, I had already forgotten about it. But since it was just outside of the train station, I couldn’t miss it. I was curious about what it would be like.
Students at work told me the name of the festival, Yosokoi (that is either the name of the festival, or the dancing style). They told me that there would be a lot of dancing and music, from Kochi in Shikoku, which is an island in the southwest of Japan. Being that it was so far away, I am not quite sure why this festival was happening here, in this small town, but hey.
There were a lot of dancers in traditional costumes dancing to music that was coming out of big speakers. The festival was taking place on a street that went down from the train station and did not allow vehicular traffic (even on days when there was no festival). The dances were said to be traditional, which they must have been since everybody was doing the same dance in unison. However, the music seemed more modern and party-like than I would have expected, sort of like 80s or 90s dance music. (Actually, it might have been a more modern dance that was more like the Macarena dance than a traditional dance from the region; I couldn’t tell.) Along with people dancing, there were men waving big flags along with the music and dancing. Because there were flags waving, I could see that the dancing and festivities were going on a ways back, perhaps about a kilometer back.
I was only there for about fifteen minutes before 6 o’clock came, and the festival ended. The people started cleaning up, and loading up into busses. I walked further back and saw that there were also food stands and little booths for little souvenirs.
It was easy for me to have fun watching the people dance and sing. I was lucky to have come upon the festival, even if it was for fifteen minutes.
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