three generations festival

Well, today has certainly provided quite a contrast to yesterday, where I literally stayed in my apartment all day. (In my defense, it was pouring when I got up and I did get to chat with my dad and some friends, so it wasn't a totally unproductive day). But anyway, today I went to Chiba's Three Generations Festival!

The CCIA was having an event where foreigners could borrow yukata (summer kimonos) and then go dance the Chiba dance in the festival, and they invited me to join! Since I wasn't going for work I didn't have to be there until late in the afternoon, but they said if I wanted I could also go early and help out, and since I really had nothing else to do I figured I might as well. So I took the bus down to Chiba Station and walked to the CCIA. I got there a little bit early, so I spent a little bit of time wandering around the plaza, which was full of food stands and had a stage with performances. I'm not sure why this is the case, but basically every time I've gone somewhere with an outdoor stage in Japan, the performance has been Japanese kids dancing hip-hop. Weird.

Anyway, then I went in and helped them set up a little bit for the event. After waiting a while, the exchange students from  North Vancouver, who had been there for a bit, were heading off to go carry a mikoshi (portable shrine), and I got invited to go with them. It started pouring right as we left the building, but it cleared up after a little bit and we got to the starting point. On the way there, the mayor of Chiba City apparently passed by carrying a mikoshi, but I didn't manage to see it, which was pretty disappointing - I would have loved to see the mayor helping to haul a mini shrine down the street! Anyway, after that we walked down next to the parade. I was just observing, not actually carrying the shrine, but the North Vancouver kids seemed to have a really good time! It was pretty fun to watch them chanting and heaving the shrine with everybody else.

After that we went back to the CCIA, and I had somebody help me change into my yukata, which I'd bought when studying abroad. This was the first time I've worn it (besides trying it on right after I bought it), and also the first time I used the obi that I brought with me, which, as it turns out, is ridiculously long and also apparently not really the kind that you wear with a yukata. But they put it on me and I got a few compliments on it, so it worked. :)

After that, we all learned the Chiba dance, which is actually pretty simple - you just repeat the same short series of steps over and over again. There was a bit of time before we had to head out to actually do the dance, so I spent some time with the exchange students from North Vancouver and Gina. Then we were off to do the dance!

The way it worked seemed to be that there were lots of groups (various organizations, clubs, etc) that had people dancing on the streets, which were also full of various taiko (drum) groups. The song for the Chiba dance was played over loudspeakers, while all the dancers progressed along a route (while dancing the Chiba dance) and the taiko players drummed. It was actually really fun, even though we were doing the same steps over and over to the same song for at least an hour and a half. I could probably do the dance in my sleep now - after about fifteen minutes I stopped really thinking about the dance steps and just did them while watching all the taiko players drum as we passed. I did get to talk to some new people from the CCIA, too, which was nice.

After the dance, everybody was tired and that was the end of the event, so after helping to clean up a little bit I headed on home. I thought I would have to walk from the monorail station back to my apartment (which takes about 20 minutes) because all the buses from Chiba Station to my apartment had left, but I checked the bus stop at the monorail station and luckily the last bus going past my apartment was in fifteen minutes!

And now I'm home and pretty exhausted, so I think I'll head to bed early! I'm glad to have participated in my first festival (as opposed to just going and watching), and hopefully I'll do it again sometime. :D