Hatsudai Awaodori Festival – Kurenairen

The last two months have been heaven for us Awaodori dance fans here in Tokyo! Last weekend there was the annual festival in Hatsudai, making it the possibly the most centrally located of the major awaodori festivals. It is a two day event but I only had time to visit on the first day, but I would have loved to have seen the second day as well as there was a bit of rain to make it all interesting! These photos are of the Kurenairen (紅連) and some of their coolest dancers and musicians. Isn’t that smile on the girl in fifth photo just wonderful! I think she is just in the middle of singing that famous awaodori song phrase “やっぱり、おどりはやめられない”, “after all, I can’t stop dancing” (in my own poor translation).