お祭り!!!

The other day I heard drums from my balcony, so I took my handy dandy bike and set off following the music. After just a few minutes, I found it. A lot of people had gathered and were dressed in old-fashioned costumes, with a king and queen they had chosen, and a lot of groups with subdivisions by costume (there were townsfolk that looked like they came from different historical eras, samurai, funny flip-flop wearing folk…) Besides the procession of costumed people simply walking, there were flag dancers, eisa drummers, and a war between a lion and a dragon. Eisa is a traditional dance of Okinawa, not a part of mainland Japanese culture. The flag dancers were very energetic (especially in this heat, in long black sleeves…): they raced about in circles, created formations and waved their huge flags. Then there was a dragon and an Okinawan lion. About 15 guys held up the dragon by poles. It had a ferocious head, and did a snake dance with techno-Japanese beats blasting from a huge mobile sound station that a guy in furry pants was pushing around. I think he might have been one third of the lion, doing double duty with the sound station. Here are some pictures.