here, there, everywhere

On Saturday, we went with Yuka to her hometown in Ibaraki Prefecture to see the first day of the three day long Ishioka Matsuri, which is famous for its dashi floats (above) and shi-shi tiger dancers (below). It was a great night - I always have a great time at festivals in Japan and this one was especially fun; it's hard not to be in a good mood when everyone else is out in the streets wearing their festival clothes having a great time. So here are too many photos selected from the too many photos that I took - there'll be larger versions of these and more at my photoblog over the next few days.

Aside from Teiko's visit two weeks ago, we really don't get out much. So when one of my students invited me to her belly dancing performance, which was part of a larger "Numazu Summer Garden" festival, we were all too happy to check it out. Good thing too, because the belly dancing was only the opening act of an *awesome* evening-long concert on a stage stretched out over the Kanogawa river.

above: women in yukata

My favorite band by far were these guys, who began their set with a loud OKAY NUMAZU!!, opened with the Blues Brothers and sang a lot of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. 

The crowd was pretty quiet a first... 

... but soon there were lots of people dancing up towards the front.

Also, the concert was briefly interrupted to hold a wedding onstage! I have no idea why - it was definitely a weird moment to be the clueless non-Japanese speakers in the crowd - but I do very much hope that if I ever get married, I too can be married by a man in a red silk jacket and a pimp hat. I could probably do without a crowd of strangers looking on impatiently, though.