Yosakoi

Firstly I must apologise once again for my terrible consistency with this blog, however this time I have a half decent excuse. About a fortnight ago something happened that I had been expecting for a long time, the possibility of which had been gnawing at me from the back of my mind. Unexpectedly one evening, my laptop drew its final breath, and as the last bit of shrivelled up life force that it had been desperately clinging to was unceremoniously belched out, it slithered miserably off the mortal coil. In layman's terms; my laptop's fucked and as such I've had to resort to borrowing my roommate's P.C for all my I.T requirements.

Somewhat similar to how I looked after this calamity.

Now, onto Yosakoi and the festival. I'm going to go on ahead and assume that absolutely no one who reads this will have ever heard of Yosakoi, so I'll give you a brief run down. Yosakoi is a contemporary style of dance that started sometime in 1950s Japan. The costumes are bright and flamboyant while the dance movements themselves often involve swinging, dynamic movements with the limbs sometimes using props such as cloth, flags, drums and clackers. These movements usually represent the four classical elements; earth, water, wind and fire. The music itself is energetic, rousing and at times epic in its tonality. On an interesting side note all the Yosakoi dance songs are inspired from an old Japanese sea shanty (a song for sailors and fisherman to work to) and as such all contain small excerpts from the original tune, although heavily remixed.

What you can expect from an average Yosakoi performance

Now, what does all of this have to do with me? And how the hell did I wind up on stage, wearing a headband, dancing and chanting to lyrics whose meanings I am still completely ignorant to. Well for the past eight years all the volunteers who have come to the Toya project have joined the local Yosakoi troupe and have performed alongside the locals at the Yosakoi Soran (festival) in Sapporo. It has been so popular with the volunteers it has become somewhat of an unofficial tradition so shortly after I arrived I soon found myself in full garb desperately flailing about trying to keep up with the other dancers. My initial impressions towards Yosakoi were somewhat mixed but largely positive. The most prevalent thought that occupied my mind at the time was "thank god my friends at home can't see me now". This was largely because the I'm pretty sure the song we conduct warm up exercises to is used in Zumba, something I associate with menopausal women and not gap year adventures. These feelings of discomfort soon left me however and I found myself enjoying Yosakoi for what it was which is a bloody good hobby and a great way to spend your time and if that made me a puff then so be it, I would become the champion of all gaylords.

A shot of me and James performing with our team on the main stage. I managed to mess up a movement involving a jacket change so I had to finish the song without my fabulous orange attire. 

As the festival approached I slowly became more and more nervous about performing a dance that I had grown to find second nature. The Japanese reassured me though that mistakes are okay and that as long as I smiled and went for it that was all that mattered. "Gambatte" was the phrase that was used repeatedly which roughly translates to "just go for it" or "give it your all" which really embodies the Japanese spirit quite well. So as we said our final "Gambatte"s and ran onto stage for the first of our performances, I stopped worrying, I stopped thinking and just went for it. Many of the letters and messages I've read that have been left over by previous volunteers have said that the Yosakoi Soran is one of the most memorable nights of the year and although I admit I was slightly sceptical at first they were all so right. The rush that the performances gives and the unimaginably climactic explosion of tension is truly exhilarating and it leaves you with the stupidest grin on your face dying for more.

See bellow: Stupid Grin.

So basically what I'm trying to say is if you get the chance or are ever in Japan for an extended period of time try Yosakoi. It's not about skill or technicality or looking cool, it's about going for it and having a great time and I can't I think of a better reason to do anything.