Bon Odori 2010

Wheee....finally had a taste of Bon Odori yesterday!!!

Went there with my Jap school who rented a bus for the students. All we had to do was pay RM10.

Some girls were there early and rented a yukata to wear to the festival. I didn't. Then I realised that one should wear the yukata there to fully experience the culture. When else can you wear a yukata, walk around, buy food and dance in it????

First, collected the free fans given by advertisers before entering. Then I headed to the food stalls with a fren. Gosh~~~ and the lines were loooooooooooooooooong!

It's difficult to buy food as there were just too many people.

Wanted to get some yaki stuffs but I cahnged my mind and went to the shortest line there is and ordered a soft shell temaki instead. Not cheap at all... RM 6 for one.

Then we decided to go for ice creams. Bon Odori is held in summer where people wear yukata which is a summer clothing so it makes sense to get something cold to cool us down. The lines for the all the ice stuffs were the longest!!!!

We picked the line for japanese ice creams which you can get from any shojikiya. After a few minutes, 5 small japanese boys suddenly appeared in front of us, pretending to be passing by and then just cut into out line. My fren was like "ahem ahem" and the boys got scared!! haaha...so cute!!!

Their 'leader' who's 9/10 was sooo naughty. He told us that he can only speak in japanese, so we spoke to them in japanese. First, he told me that the kid in front of is 1 years old!! I'm like....what, u liar!!!! My fren asked where did they go just now? and one kid told me that he came from indonesia. I was like.....aren't you japanese? Then the same kid told my friend that he came from austria!!!! omg~~~

The kid leader even tried pushing his buddies to some young japanese girls dresses in kimono in front of them. The girls totally ignored the boys. lol~~~

When it was their turn to order, they spoke in english to the storekeeper and I was like, I thought you just said you can't speak in other languages, other than japanese!!!

My fren then spoke in eng and told the storekeeper that the boys would be paying for us. That's when the boys started to look scared and thought, "ok...we better be leaving now!!" LOL!!! So much for pretending not to understand english!!!!!

Bon odori would not be complete without the taikos and odori (dance). There were 3 rounds thoughout the event. 1st round, there were few people and I totally had no idea how the dance goes as I can't see the dancers properly from there I was standing. 2nd round, we went with my sensei and we just followed whatever she did.....by the 3rd round, we were experts and joined in with other from my school. It was super packed. so many people joined in for the final round that you keep losing your line!

Overall, it was a really good experience since I've never been to one. It's great to go with friends and just picnic there! I like looking at girls dressed in pretty yukata but not those which are too short, dropping over the shoulders or with holes and there. I think that these anime styled ones aren't very nice for a festival like this is meant for honouring the spirits for the ancestors.

Yup yup, I hope to go back again in future but in yukata!!! :)