Awa Dance Fest in Tokushima, Japan
Sankei/Petty Images–TOKUSHIMA, JAPAN – AUGUST 12: Performers dance during the Awa Dance Festival on August 12, 2009 in Tokushima, Japan. The four day festival is expected to attract 1.4 million people.
The Awa Odori (Dance Festival) is held from 12 to 15 August as part of the Obon festival in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku in Japan. It is just damn surreal–the dancers number in ten of thousands chanting dunk…
Odoru ahou ni –The dancers are fools
Miru ahou –The watchers are fools
Onaji ahou nara –Both are fools alike so
Odorana son, son –Why not dance?
The dancers also chant call and response patterns such as “Yattosa, yattosa“, “Hayaccha yaccha” and “Erai yaccha, erai yaccha“, “Yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi“—these calls have no real meaning.
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