We woke up early for a 7:00 am breakfast served by the friendly hotel staff, a delicious meal of broiled salmon, hot rice, steaming miso soup, and fresh pickles. The night before, one of the women, on hearing of our plans to attend the Yosakoi Festival, suggested finding parking at a local shopping mall. Based on her advice, we left the peninsula for the city, weaving our way to the AEON Shopping Center.
Large AEON centers remind me of American malls in their layout. I love the AEON Mall in Kita-Kobe, for example, for its bright, spacious walkways. The Kochi AEON is particularly remarkable in that it is located within the city itself. Most new malls in Japan can only find ample in the countryside. Furthermore, the Kochi AEON features a movie theater! Kochi residents, you are lucky peeps.
Chris and I lunched in the food court (bi bim bap for him, Pepper Lunch for me) before catching a bus toward the city center, where we discovered that the streets had been closed off for the yosakoi proceedings.
At this point, I should explain what yosakoi is. According to Wikipedia (source of all knowledge), yosakoi originated in Kochi in 1956 as a modern update of the dancing in Awa Odori in Tokushima (see 四国パート３). During よさこい祭り, groups from across the country dance down the streets following large trucks (decorated in group colors) blaring the accompanying music. All dancers use a pair of wooden clappers called naruko, which Wikipedia asserts were originally used by farmers to scare away birds from rice crops. Today the naruko serve as musical instruments and dance props, though dancers may also use drums, fans, or even toy fish!
Yosakoi involves plenty of yelling.
そーらん、そーらん！
This boy sported a glitter-filled hairdo (Japan's ideas of masculinity obviously differ from those in the West) and belonged to a group danced in a prim and restrained style. The women wore fitted, high-collar outfits. I much prefer the loud, shouting groups.
The costumes are almost as fascinating as the dances themselves.
We encountered the following group waiting to cross the street. I didn't care for their costumes, which were made of a terry cloth material and looked like baggy pajamas, but the group mascot is The Shrimp, and several of the members had pinned toy shrimp to their caps and sleeves.
This guy toted a giant ebi sushi on his back and "pulled" along the music truck.
元気いっぱい！
The men in this truck waved their giant fans and danced so hard that I thought the swaying truck might topple over.
All I had known prior to learning of yosakoi was of restrained, dainty traditional Japanese dance that could easily put me to sleep. I loved discovering that Japan celebrates such a thrilling artform in which both men and women can exhibit strength and passion. I want to learn yosakoi too!
Following the afternoon performances, we returned to the AEON Center hot and sunburnt, where we picked up our car and returned to our hotel for another delicious dinner. (We ate watermelon for the second night in a row!) We updated our favorite hotel lady on the festivities before retiring to our room for showers and planning for the next day.
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