According to Stevie, for the past 364 days, since we missed it last year, I have been talking about going to the 10,000 Eisa festival in Naha. Well, the annual festival finally came around again so we had our opportunity to go on Sunday. With a bright HOT Okinawan sun shining down on us we climbed in the Blue Beater with our neighbors, Krimp and Demitri, and one of the new OB docs, Carolyn.
Eisa dancing is a traditional dance that dates back several hundred years but is completely unique to the Ryukyu islands, of which Okinawa is the largest. Originating from a folk song, the dance was designed as a way the young people could pay respect to their ancestors each summer by marching through their neighborhoods while playing taiko drums. Taiko drums are traditional Japanese drums.
The dance is performed in a group and has a beautiful rhythmic beat which is accompanied by flowing, energetic choreographed moves. After watching these guys yesterday, I really think it should be offered as an exercise class at the gym! It could be the newest exercise craze - after zumba and pole dancing!
So the festival is several days long, but the culmination is the 10,000 eisa dancer parade which takes place on Kokusai street (the touristy, kitchy street in downtown Naha). The whole parade was amazingly well coordinated with exact times and places where the troops from various towns around Okinawa would stop and perform their routine.
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| Even the littlest guys got into the routine! |
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| Did I mention how HOT it was? Ice cream to cool off! |
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| A sad clown? I've never seen the "clown" thing before so I'm not sure what part they play in the eisa dance. |
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| Posers! The Japanese love to give the peace sign in photos. |
As we wondered down Kokusai Street, we wound our way to the fish market. Emmy and her friend Lydia were fascinated by this HUGE lobster. Dinner anyone?
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Emmy meets a stone fish.
Stone fish live in the waters around here and are extremely poisonous if you touch their spines, but, according to the fish monger, make delicious sashimi! |
After buying some parrot fish for dinner, we headed back down Kokusai for some more of the parade.
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