yosakoi in hokkaido

At the beginning of the month, I went to Hokkaido with my yosakoi team for the Yosakoi Soran Matsuri, which I think is probably one of the biggest yosakoi festivals in Japan (at the very least, it's the biggest one we go to)! It was my first time in Hokkaido, which was pretty exciting, and only my second time performing with my yosakoi team, which was also exciting (and nerve-wracking).

We had 85+ people go, including staff, etc., but since everybody had different schedules we split among several different flights, and I landed on Friday night. We got there a bit later than intended and after checking in and meeting up with everybody who had arrived earlier, a few of us ventured off for some Sapporo ramen. There was a pretty long line even though it was past 10, but it was definitely worth the wait. :D

And then it was up bright and early for our first day at the festival! Basically, we spent the whole day going from performance to performance in different places all over Sapporo, starting with a parade where we performed 5 times in a row. Not only was it pretty exhausting, our second performance was also the judging that would determine whether or not we would go onto the finals, so we definitely started out the weekend with a bang. Then we performed near JR Hokkaido Station, at the Sapporo Beer Garden (which also included a giant screen in the background), in front of Mitsukoshi, and then near Susukino Station, lit up by lots of lights - we even won some beer for being energetic! I think my favorite places to perform were the Beer Garden and the road near Susukino Station. And then we all headed to a restaurant to stuff ourselves on all-you-can-eat Ghengis Khan (a type of dish involving mutton that's famous in Hokkaido)! I'm not really a fan of mutton, but it was pretty tasty.

Then we were up bright and early the next day to repeat the process. Except that the second day it was raining, which put a bit of a dampener (pun intended) on things. After two more stage performances and one parade performance, we finished up day two with another 5-in-a-row parade performance, which was physically and emotionally the peak of the trip. A great ending to the two days. Which was followed immediately by a big dinner with everybody, after which one of my group members and I walked back towards where the finals were taking place on a huge stage. Tickets for the finals had been sold out for ages, but the area around the stage was cleared for walkways. Stopping was forbidden, so we just walked around the stage in circles for a few teams' performances. And then we rounded up the night with another party with everybody.

The last day was just sightseeing! I got up early to help clean up our float (is that what you call it? A giant decorated truck), and then we went to the Asahiyama Zoo, where we saw polar bears and seals and penguins and more. After that was a barbecue with lots of fresh Hokkaido vegetables, including tons of asparagus (another food I'm not so fond of but ate tons of because it was a specialty of Hokkaido and actually tasty). And then it was a rush back to the airport and back on the plane to Chiba.

This is the biggest event of the year for my team and while we didn't make the finals or semi-finals (the top two teams in each block get to go), we did get what was essentially 4th place in our block, which was not bad, I think. A lot of the team seemed dissatisfied with it though, so maybe next year we'll try harder! I should still be able to go one last time before my JET experience ends, so I'm looking forward to it. :)