The notice on the website said the festival was on, but Typhoon Talas was passing over Shikoku and leaving even Tokyo drenched. The question was whether heavy rain would stop the last chance to see Awa Odori this summer at a festival known as “Odore, NishiHachi Natsu Matsuri” (Summer Festival in Nishi-Hachiouji).
Awa Odori is a Japanese dance originally from Tokushima in, yes, Shikoku. Its most distinctive feature, aside from the movements and the way the female dancers stand on the ‘tips’ of their wooden sandals, is the straw hats. Shaped like a half-moon and covering half the face, they are called amigasa.
As you can see by the photos, the matsuri took place more-or-less as planned. If you look closer (click on the landscape-oriented photos to view at 1024×768 resolution), you can see the dancers’ hair is slick and some of the yukata is becoming see-through around the sleeves. Yes, they really did dance through a typhoon! The only concessions to the weather was wrapping fans and paper lanterns in clear plastic and a shortening of the performance time.
It’s worth mentioning that there were about four or five children performing, some of whom hadn’t even reached elementary school age. Due to their age, I won’t upload them to the wilds of the internet, but the crowd adored them.
That high ISO performance is why I want a newer camera. The D80 just isn’t cutting it anymore.
It’s actually a D90, so not too different really. I chose to stand close to a floodlight, which lit the performers nicely and I was also at the front of the crowd, so that made a lot of difference too.