I’m going to say, first of all, that I am infinitely sorry that there are no photos in this post.

This is not to say that there are no photos of me doing Awa Odori. Oh my no, there are photos. But they are currently unavailable to me.

Let’s talk about Awa Odori. First, absorb the information that this is the second largest dance festival in the world. Second, imagine every conception, memory, and theory that you have about what a giant dance festival is, and what a Japanese festival is. Now imagine a world in which all of those things obtain. This is Awa Odori.

We came back from English camp and were bundled off to a hotel a mere half a block from the river (and maybe 5 blocks from my apartment). There, we all put on Yukata (summer style kimono) from our Ren (dance group), which is called Arasowa Ren. Everyone wore a yukata, belt, headband, and carried an Arasowa Ren fan (there are now 5 in my apartment). We then walked to another hotel, where the entire Ren (about 200 people, maybe half of them visibly foreigners) gathered for speeches, kampais (cheers!) and free food and beer. There was also a brief dance practice, a few group photos, and then we hit the streets.

Awa Odori is danced on numerous stages, which is basically the street bordered by stadium seating. You walk from one stage to the next through ridiculously crowded streets, dancing whatever stages you want. There are hardcore fancy-dance Rens, just-for-fun group dancers with random street people bringing up the rear, and everything in between. In order to make sure your Ren gets from one place to another, all the dancers and musicians just follow the standard-bearers. A couple people carry giant poles with oversized lanterns and fans and so forth, each bearning your Ren’s name. It’s pretty much total chaos.

We boogied down three stages over the course of 4 hours. In between, we walked the streets, ate snacks, danced, took photos, and drank beer. It’s perfectly Ok to drink in the streets, but it’s 100% illegal to drink on the stages. I drank no alcohol, but made the mistake of drinking really cold things (juice and water). This + lots of heat + dancing = I got really sick. The dancing itself was fun, and crazy, with lots of yelling and arm-waving. The basic call for Awa Odori is “yattosa, yattosa!”, and you reply with the same, or with “yatto yatto!”. Anyone can lead the call (in our undisciplined Ren, at least) and yelling back makes you feel really energized. When you’re actually dancing, you feel great, no matter how crappy you felt previously. Then, once you get off the stage and start walking normally again, you feel like you want to die.

Later, after a shower and a rest at our hotel, I went out again, determined to avoid cold drinks. I wandered with a few girls, eating festival snacks and taking it all in. The capper was when we went to Ingrid’s, the really happenin’ international (read: gaijin) bar. We stayed all of 4 minutes, picked up another girl for our group, and left. Going down the weird little lanes of bars, snack bars (pretty ladies sit on your lap and take all your money) and soaplands (pretty ladies give you sexy times and a bath, take all your money), we ran into a group of 5 dancers and a full band. So we all started dancing again. Then all the people walking down the street started dancing. Then all the people in the mom&pop noodle shops stuck their heads out the door and started dancing and watching. Little kids were dancing. Despite being foreigners, despite being tired, hot, sick, (and for some of us) a few sheets to the wind, we were all yelling and dancing together.

It was one of those really amazing moments that you can’t plan, can’t predict, and can’t resist. That memory of spontaneous dancing with strangers is stronger in my mind than the entire buildup because it said “Here, we’re all enjoying this together. Yattosa!”