That's not a hand

Awa Odori has come and gone for another year... sniff! :) I think everyone who gets stuck into it in any half-serious way suffers from withdrawal after the summer festival winds up. There's also a whole bunch of new JETs in town, most of whom I still haven't met, but the few I have are easy to get along with. Certainly, here in the city, we have a great team that is already doing well together. Back at work, today I just finished with my last seminar presentation of the summer, an English conversation workshop for local teachers. And this weekend is the last before school goes back next Thursday. A bit of sleep, a few drinks, some study, and time to relax, and then truly summer will be at an end. I can already feel the coming autumn with its cooler nights and typhoons and school carnivals and falling leaves and all that stuff.

Tensui-ren at a local temple - you can find me in the back row, second from left!

Is this my last goodbye to a Japanese summer? I'm really not sure. I wonder about it because, particularly in the post-Odori slump, the prospect of being an ALT for yet another year isn't what it used to be. I like the people I work with, the students here are just fine, the money's okay, and I get plenty of encouragement from my employers and teaching peers to stay on, not to mention plenty of jokes about being a Japan lifer. But for all that, I've been doing this for four years now, and this English teaching gig isn't going to be a lasting career. To stay here, I'd really need something I can get my teeth into, a new challenge and environment. But I still love Tokushima and I guess it remains to be seen whether I will see this contract out until next August, which will allow me to dance next summer before I leave the JET Programme, or possibly make a break for it in April.

The dancing was motivation for me to move to the big city at this time last year, of course, and it remains a good reason for me to stay on. Friends often comment on how happy I look when I'm dancing and I'm often asked why I enjoy Awa Odori so much. I don't honestly know the answer! I've always enjoyed dancing, one way or another, but the fun gained a bit of focus at university when I started doing bhangra with my Indian mates and when, briefly before I came to Japan, I took up swing. Awa Odori is another kettle of tea, of course, but there's something about it that strikes a chord deep in my soul.

For just a little while, you can put all the little dramas of the world to one side, chuck on a yukata, get together with your friends, and put your body to good use dancing down the street. It's very inclusive, very much a team effort between dancers and musicians and even to some extent the audience. Sometimes it's a well rehearsed dance, but Awa Odori always retains an element of spontaneity, and I feel like I can do it anywhere, at anytime, with anyone. I could keep trying to express it in prose, but I think a haiku might do it better.

Awa no hito
Ikite iru node
Odoritai

In Tokushima
People want to dance
Because they're alive

Please excuse the rough translation. :)

Of course, not everyone feels the same about Awa Odori, even people who have lived here all their lives, and maybe the visit I was paid by an old university mate during the festival this month demonstrates this as well as anything. Some of you may have clicked through to the no-holds-barred account of life in Japan Blog of Shark from the link on my front page. Better known as Shark Meat back in the day, the author, Mark, now lives in Osaka, so it wasn't too far a journey for him to take me up on an invitation to crash on my tatami and enjoy the spectacle that is Awa Odori. He brought his lovely girlfriend along for the fun, too, and I think they had a good time walking around, taking it all in. The long spot he wrote about it is some testament to that - you can check it out HERE and I highly recommend a quick read through Mark's many other adventures, very entertaining. But as Mark (and many other people) once commented, the Awa Odori rhythm sounds the same after a while, and it goes on and on and on, and this can really get on some people's nerves. So for some, one night's dancing is enough. I can understand that.

At the other end of the spectrum, I was very happy to see a couple of JET friends turn up at Zenyasai, the big stage gala performance on the night before the Awa Odori festival officially begins. One of these friends, Ellie, lives in Miyoshi-cho and dances with Minoda-ren - we danced together for a year and a bit before I properly moved on to Tensui-ren this past April - so she knows and loves Awa Odori in much the same way I do and is always up for it. But I caught Ellie as she was coming out of the Zenyasai venue early and was shocked to see her crying. What could be wrong, I thought?! It turned out that the only thing wrong was that she had to leave early to get back for practice in Miyoshi that evening. The spectacle of all the best Awa Odori groups coming together for a combined celebration of dance was like nothing she had ever seen before and she was moved to tears. I guess her reaction was a bit moving for me, too.

I remember, some two years ago now, when I went to see some Awa Odori on stage at one of Tokushima's biggest venues, the Kyodo Bunka Kaikan. I was still living in Iya at the time. I'd just gotten back from my first Tokyo Orientation as AJET staff, with only a few days to spare before the Awa Odori festival out in the west of the prefecture was due to get under way. But I had a spare day on the 13th and Yumiko, a lovely girl I was seeing at the time, had the great idea of going into Tokushima city to see this performance and catch some action in the streets that evening. Some of the most famous Awa Odori groups were scheduled to perform, so we jumped in my Pajero Mini and headed in hoping that we could still get tickets.

We waited in line to snap up a couple of last minute seats. We saw groups like Ahou-ren, Ukiyo-ren, and Mizutama-ren put on a great show of dancing on a scale that I had never even imagined possible. And I went back to Iya dreaming of one day being in one of those groups, dancing on that stage, living the Awa Odori life that I saw those people living. Much like Ellie, I was moved.

Getting ready to dance at the Kyodo Bunka Kaikan.

Two years later, Yumiko is married to some nice guy in the valley, I've finished with all my AJET duties, and I'm glad to say that I now drive a much more comfortable Honda Civic. Many things have changed for me, but I moved to Tokushima city last summer with this dream intact, and saw it start to take shape this past April when I joined Tensui-ren. Finally, two Sundays ago, I found myself, just briefly, dancing on that stage, living that life. I only had a bit part in the finale, but still, it was something. I hope I get to dance there again.

This summer's Awa Odori season was filled with many such good times and great memories. Tensui-ren opened its account on August 10 in Naruto and we kept at it pretty much continuously until the early hours of August 16, when I wandered home on my old bike after our post-dancing celebrations wound up at about 4am. Friday the 12th was a particularly long day:

up at 5:30 for a spot on morning television to officially welcome the festival season;
lunch time performances at ASTY;
joining in with the Awa Odori lesson at the Awa Odori Kaikan in the afternoon;
starting the evening’s dancing at 6pm at Shinmachi Bridge;
finally getting home about 11pm after the combined parade by the river.

Between dances, the junior members of the group have to carry all the instruments around - no easy task when you get assigned a big heavy bass drum! It also takes a while to wind down after a day's dancing, what with showering and having to wash your gear, so I didn't get to bed much before 1am on any day. All in all, it's an exhausting six days, and you've got to take good care of yourself to make it through!

The action at Konyamachi.

Near the end of the last night of the festival, Tensui-ren had gathered next to one of downtown Tokushima's best known landmarks, ACTY 21, and was waiting to dance down a parade street called Konyamachi. When I say gathered next to, I mean standing in the very middle of the street, in what is usually one of the city's busiest intersections. You see, during Awa Odori, the streets between Tokushima Station and ACTY 21 are closed to vehicles, to make way for crowds of spectators, dancing groups, and a few designated parade streets, and any space left over is usually claimed spontaneously for random performances. We'd just finished using said intersection for a bit of random dancing ourselves and were getting geared up to dance down our last street of the season.

After six straight days of dancing, it was a significant moment, so all the male dancers got together in a huddle for some group bonding. I was crouched in close to the centre of the huddle, where people's hands were coming together, when someone's hand rested itself on my (admittedly quite conspicuous) head. The exclamation, "That's not a hand!" was quickly followed by plenty of laughs all round. Suffice to say that we proceeded to make the most of our last hurrah and followed that up with a great party. I haven't stayed up to see the sun like that in ages...

This summer's best photo has to be this one of me and a lovely girl named Aiko. Just for the record, there are plenty of girls in Tensui-ren who are good looking and, separately, plenty who can really dance. If you're looking for the complete Awa Odori package, though, it's pretty hard to go past Aiko. She's got great balance and always looks like she loves being out there. After a while, you get to know the difference between average dancing and really good Awa Odori... anyway, great photo. :)

I'm coming up on five pages now, it's been a long time since I've written like this! But my Awa Odori season didn't finish even with the Tensui after-party. The dancing carries on for one more day out in Ikeda, so the 16th was a golden opportunity to head out west, see a few old friends, and bask in a bit of Awa Odori joy as a spectator for one last day. I should've known better than to think I wouldn't dance, though, for no sooner had I found Ellie and Minoda-ren than I was invited to join them down the main street. It's a long, long main street in Ikeda, but it's definitely one of my favourite venues. I was lucky to have my girlfriend doing the driving that night, because I was well and truly spent by the time the night came to a close!

Even better than having the chance to dance with Minoda-ren again, however, was seeing my old mate Samio out on the street. Minoda-ren's best young male dancer and a central figure in much of what the group does, he had a car accident just the week or so before the festival was due to start and ended up in a neck brace - ouch! He couldn't dance on the first night and probably shouldn't have been out there on the last night either, but sure enough, there he was, mixing it up with the best of them. In his own words, standing by and watching everyone else dance was like Awa Odori hell, so there was nothing for Samio to do but do whatever it took to join in on the 16th. I reckon I'd do the same!

The only regrets I have about this summer are missing reunions at two places that are very special to me. It's 10 years this year since I graduated from Somerset College, and there was a reunion for the Class of 1995 just last week. It's also International House's 40th anniversary this year, so a general reunion bash was timed to coincide with the annual Soiree festival a couple of weekends ago. If not for Awa Odori, I guess I could have been at both of these events. In some photos, it's amazing to see how people have changed since way back when. In others, it's amazing to see how some things stay the same. Stories keep filtering through of people and their careers and weddings and babies. It's all very nostalgic and I hope I get to catch up with a few of these people in person when I go home at Christmas.

For now, though, that was the story of another big summer in Tokushima. Time for that sleep. :)

Love,

Dave

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