daNciN' in the StrEEtS

Beautiful apparel, creative dances and delicious foods to sample! Of course, the thumping taiko drums blaring in the background help to tie it all together!

Nice shot of us ladies in ...blue! Front and center...gee, thanks for choosing me! As you can see, in every picture I am off just a wee bit!

The whole town turned out for the celebration! So many people for our little town to hold...it was a bit tricky to determine the crowd from the actual performers!

Here I am in action (why are everyone else's arms going up?) OOPS

Couple of our students sporting some sassy kimono!

Some of my students enjoying the pre-performance limelight! they are aspiring Taiko queens!

Amazing fireworks!

The most beautiful, non-breathable, uncomfortable clothing in the world. The obi [AKA: corset around my waist] is particulary awful...I have never walked with such amazing posture in my life! The kimono is wrapped so tightly around your legs, that you take baby steps everywhere. But--I am SO fortunate and thankful they wanted me to do it! It proved a highlight in this journey!

Taneichi Summer Festival 2005

The day began with a talent showcase of little tots dancing and drumming and marching! Really cute and impressive how dedicated they are to learn such things at such a young age. The fireworks held that evening were AWESOME! I couldn't believe how big the show was considering the size of this small town! The fireworks were blasted off of 2 piers and from both land and water. My favorite fireworks were those that were actually dropped INTO the water by a passing boat! Nice touch for a teeny town like Taneichi.

On Sunday, I participated in the town parade! I was fitted for my kimono and we danced around the city streets for several hours! It was a reallllllly long parade, but really fun! Most of the community came out to see the dances, taiko performances and traditional culinary delights served up for all! I loved wearing the kimono, but I didn't realize how warm it was! There are layers upon layers upon LAYERS of clothes that are wrapped around and around and around....atsui, astui (VERY HOT!) My friend Masato, had his mother help dress me-it took almost 30 minutes to put it on! About 20 of us danced together during the parade. As this was my first dance/first kimono epxerience, I had asked the other women if I could be in the back row........but oh, no--they weren't going to let me get off that easy!

So there I was--FRONT AND CENTER!
It ended up going very smoothly though--it was a wonderful experience! The Taneichi Taiko Team played afterwards and we snacked on more festival-food and chatted with some local high school boys who were pretty genki. Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the day, was during the parade while I was dancing. All of the town's people were giving me waves and cheers and smiles...but there was one woman in particular that stood out. She was really old and sitting in a wheel chair on the side of the street----flashing a peace sign.


Isn't that what it's all about?