Awa Odori 2010

Description from Wikipedia:

"Tokyo Koenji Awaodori Dance Festival is held annually on the last Saturday and Sunday of August.

About 188 groups, 12,000 dancers perform Awa dance to lively music and parade through the nine routes set up along the shotengai, located on both north and south side of JR Koenji Station, and Konan Street of the south. Koenji Awaodori is the second largest of all the Awaodori festivals held throughout Japan, following the one in Tokushima.

It also highlights the summer of Tokyo as one of the three largest summer festivals of the area, together with Sumida River Fireworks Festival and Asakusa Samba Carnival."

I first attended Awa Odori last year. It was only my second day in Japan at the time I went, and so stands as my most memorable introduction to the country. When I returned to Japan after being home for the summer, I knew the first thing I wanted to do when I returned was attend this festival. I attended both dates, Saturday and Sunday,and was surprised to see how differently it struck me. In reality of course, everything was the same, but what shifted was my perspective, having lived in Japan for about a year, I'd become completely used to the sights, sounds, and crowds.

Of course I still had a good time, but it was not shocking or surreal like it was the first time I attended. As I said, it was only my second day in Japan, and I was still jet-lagged and trying to orient myself in my new surrounds. I think it was the most people in one place I had ever seen, and along with all the new sights and smells and sounds, was rather overwhelming in very good way.

Koenji is one of my favorite places in Tokyo for a number of reasons, this festival being one of them. I have lived there numerous times since coming to Japan and return often.