Tonight – Koenji Awaodori Festival

Tonight starting at 1700 is the biggest Awaodori festival in mainland Japan, the Koenji Awaodori Matsuri. Running since 1957 it attracts about one million visitors and over 10 000 dancers during the two night event. Up until 2011 it always started at 1800, like most Awaodori festivals but in order to save electricity is has been set to start at 1700 since then, which in my opinion works well because you get both a little light and a little night.

However, there is also another massive Awaodori festival taking place in Minamikoshigaya in nearby Saitama tonight, as well as a huge Yosakoi festival in Harajuku. Lots of options tonight!

I took these photos from last year’s festival on the outer edges of the festival area, which are usually not very crowded. Here’s the great Shinjuku Ward Office official team the Tsutsujiren (新宿区役所つつじ連), the Awaodori Tamaki (阿波踊りたまき) and the Mitakaginzaren (みたか銀座連)!

Awaodori Tamaki

Last week I visited the Awaodori festival in Hatsudai. I usually never have time to go to that particular festival but this year I was lucky enough to be able to go. It might be a long time before I get a chance to go again. Hatsudai is friendly little place right in the shadow of Shinjuku in central Tokyo. It’s so small and off the major train lines that it’s easily forgotten, but thanks to a cool community and great events like this awaodori festival it’s getting more and more famous even in Tokyo. The festival takes place along the local shotengai, shopping street, and has two stages for set performances by the teams. Naturally I spent most of my time at the street, enjoying the dances and the music.

One of the teams I noticed, partly because of their cool uniforms, were the Awaodori Tamaki, that had a good mix of young and old. The first photo is my favorite, isn’t his face great? I under exposed these deliberately, to get a slightly different feel from my other brighter and more colorful awaodori photos. The under exposed photos match the rather monochrome unfiforms of this team.