2001-08-06 - 10:18 a.m.
At 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, Boss arrived to take me to the town festival. In the limited conversation we had in the car, I understood these words: "center" (where we were going) and "dance lesson." Hmm. We did, indeed go to the center, where we met up with Boss' wife and 2 year old daughter. The three of us went up to the school board office, presumably to wait for something, though I had no idea what was going on. After about 15 minutes, Boss brought out a stack of red Japanese shirt/jacket type things and gave me one to put on. His wife tied a black obi (belt) around my waist. Three other familiar office workers arrived and tied a pink and white polka dot bandanna around my head and draped another around my neck. Fortunately, all of the other men were similarly dressed. More talk in Japanese ensued, of which I understood nothing except when they turned to me and said "Sarah -- dance lesson!"
Sure enough, after about 45 minutes of waiting in the office, Boss took me down to the back of the center building, where about 50-60 people all dressed like me were practicing the town dance in neat rows. I joined in, and fortunately it was easy. Everyone was very amused to see the foreigner in a traditional costume. After about a half hour of practice, we filed back into the center building for a buffet dinner. The beer and sake flowed freely and my glass was always full. A raffle was held, and I won a prize, to the great happiness of my co-workers. The MC gave a short speech about me in Japanese and I bowed to the audience to much applause. My co-workers demanded that I unwrap my prize right then and there. The first box turned out to be 5 cans of crab and everyone looked horrified -- "Sarah begetarian desu!" but I quickly assured everyone that this would be a great omiyage (gift) for my parents, and that seemed like a good answer. The second box contained what appeared to be a lifetime supply of somen noodles, a vegetarian food to everyone's relief.
Finally, we made the walk to the festival. Dozens of groups of similarly dress people, each with a different color costume, lined the big street in front of the train station. After about a half hour waiting, and 15 minutes of welcomes in Japanese, the music blared over the loudspeaker and we began our dance down the street. It was a slow-moving parade, with thousands of people lining the streets. As moved further along, I saw stands set up along the sidewalk selling food and toys. Each time the song came to an end, it would start up again -- the same song played over and over. After about 30 minutes on the route, they called a break, and all the dancers ran back to get a beer or tea from the cooler carts which were trailing each group. Following the short break, the music started again, and we danced for another 30 minutes, followed by another beer break. This went on for a total of 2 hours -- the same song, the same dance over and over again. My boss and some workers from the center fetched me from the line after about 1 hour and took me to look at some of the stands, which sold familiar things like cotton candy and candied apples and less familiar things like grilled octopus. I settled on a lolipop. Walking through the crowd, my boss, who used to teach jr. high school was literally mobbed by former students, who shrieked and clawed at him like he was a member of the Beatles. He had to fend them off by giving them a playful slap on the top of the head with his fan. I'm not sure yet if this is because he was a particularly popular teacher, or if this is a common reaction of students on seeing a teacher in public.
We left the festival and returned our costumes to the center, and were awarded a parting gift: a purple box the size of a pizza box filled with 28 small cans of juice -- "Welch's Fruits Juices Gift Box." Weighed down with my prizes, we proceeded to a bar for a drink. Boss had a long converstation with the waitress about my vegetarianism, and while the others at my table snacked on pickled vegetables with their beer, I was brought a bowl of soybeans, a block of tofu w/ scallions, a sliced tomato, a bowl of miso soup, a plate of pickled something or other, 2 rice and seaweed ball sandwich things, and a large salad! Mind you, we went for one drink at 10 PM -- not dinner! They do aim to please.
