dokidoki domatsuri

At the end of last month, my yosakoi team went to Nagoya to participate in the Nippon Domannaka Matsuri (often shortened to just Domatsuri), a big yosakoi festival on the same scale as the Yosakoi Soran Matsuri in Hokkaido - over 200 teams from all over the country, over the course of three days.

I was excited to go back to Nagoya, almost exactly a year after my last trip there, and it was pretty cool going to places I knew from studying abroad with my yosakoi team - past meets the present kind of thing. My host mother came to see us, and even managed to find me right before one of our parade performances! I also told a friend from study abroad about it and apparently she came to see us too, though I didn't manage to meet up with her. And my friend Jon was there too, since he had a Japan Rail Pass, and followed us around the whole day taking pictures.

What made this festival so memorable (and worth its own post) though, is that - to everybody's surprise - on the second day we found out that not only had our team won a special judge's award, but but we had placed 1st in our block and were therefore going to the finals! Although all our team emails about the tournament had included provisions for if we made it to the finals, I don't think any of us were expecting to actually make it there, since there were other really good teams in our block with even more members. I was hoping that maaaybe we could make the semifinals, or 2nd place in the block, so hearing that it was the actual finals was a huge surprise. Some people started crying right then and there after hearing the news, and even I got a bit teary.

Going to the finals meant that we would perform our dance one more time on the main stage, in the evening with bright stage lights. Apparently it was also broadcast on local television (in the middle of the night), and we had a TV crew come up to our team before and after the performances, which was pretty cool.

The teams drew lots for the performance order, and we ended up performing 8th, which out of 11 teams was pretty ideal. While we waited for our turn, we sat with the other finalist teams in an area behind the main stage, with a big screen showing us a live stream of the performances. The feeling of nerves and anticipation from all the dancers as everybody waited for their turn, in the dark illuminated only by the screen, was something else. But nothing compared to the feeling of actually dancing on that stage, with the whole team dancing for all their worth. I hadn't been placed in the group solo part for our parade performances in Nagoya, but I was in it for stage performances, so I got to dance it in the finals, and the feeling of dancing without anybody directly in front or behind me, seeing the crowd and the bright lights, in the city where I first experienced life in Japan, is something I will not forget any time soon. Definitely one of the most memorable experiences I've had in Japan so far, and I've done some pretty cool stuff (if I say so myself).

The end of our dance is pretty intense and always leaves everybody out of breath, but this time I think I really danced with all that I had and after the performance I was pretty much exhausted and crying and generally overwhelmed, but it was great. We went back to the waiting area to watch the last performances and wait for the judging results. We didn't win or anything, but I don't think anybody had anything to complain about for the rest of the night, even though we had to go straight back onto the bus and drive back to Chiba, and didn't get back until past 3AM. I had work as usual (because I had assumed we wouldn't make the finals and would be back at a more reasonable time), but I managed to get a few hours of sleep, so it was all good.

And that was my experience at the Nagoya Domannaka Matsuri! :)