[Blog] 8th of August

Day one Japan trip

Oshou and Wholock is in Japan! But why?

It started in april when zyka was contacted by Kouchi’s prefecture. They have started a new project to spread yosakoi over the world and contacted the teams in Europe and one in Canada to ask if we wanted to be yosakoi ambassadors and help with their mission. Such an honour! Two or three members from each team was chosen as representatives of the team. From zyka Oshou and me, wholock, were chosen. Zyka have since its start worked to spread yosakoi and knowledge of yosakoi in Sweden and will continue with that, now with cooperation from Kouchi’s prefecture.

Part of the individual ambassadorship will be to participate in Kouchi’s yosakoi festival, dance with an international team, watch performances and accept our official documents. Its all very official! So now we are here. The festival will start tomorrow night, with a great firework show!

Its great to be back in Kouchi again. Feels a bit nostalgic from the last time we were here with all of Zyka. This time there is no thypoon so the weather is warm and sunny. I went to the beach earlier today, very beautiful and giant waves. Unfortunately swimming was forbidden.

Tomorrow the other participants will arrive and we will all live at the same hotell and do a lot of activities together so that will be fun. Tonight we are meeting Katsuda, who lives i  Kouchi and danced with zyka when we were here 2014. Hisashiburi!

– WHOロック?
WHOlock

Festival!

A bit late of an update but…

On the 17th and 18th of October the long-awaited YEN camp took place in Trosa in Sweden, and with that came the YEN Mini Yosakoi Festival that was held on the 18th.

The festival was held in Folkets hus in Trosa. When the guests arrived they could enjoy both yosakoi photos exhibited on the walls and some Japanese festival snacks. The tickets and snacks was handled by our beautiful staff, many thanks to you! The guests also had the chance to speak to the dancers who were out mingling before the dancing started Many took the chance to ask about the dance and the different teams there.

(All the beautiful photos in this post is taken by Tomoya Suzuki)

Manager-san selling Japanese snacks to the guests. Photo by Tomoya Suzuki

Naruko from different teams (both present and not present) on display. Photo by Tomoya Suzuki

And then it was time for the main event, dancing! Zyka started out by presenting Bankuramou for the first time ever. We were all nervous but the audience enjoyed it so that’s all good.

Bankuramou with Zyka. Photo by Tomoya Suzuki.

After that followed a mix of sou-odoris, danced by all teams together, and team performances, with just one team.

 

Sou-odori. Photo by Tomoya Suzuki

It was an exciting day with lots and lots of fun. While it was a bit tiring dancing so many dances at the same event we got a lot of energy from each other and the audience. It was a great experience to dance so many dancers together, and all with different styles. Some of Zyka’s members experienced a larger team during the Japan project but even then the different languages hindered communication for many. And our new members had never experienced any other team then Zyka before the meet-up. So it was an important, and fun, experience for all of us which we hope to repeat again.

All of the dancers. Photo by Tomoya Suzuki

Where will the next meet-up be? We are already looking forward to it!

YEN meet-up and Europe’s first Yosakoi Festival!

On the 17-18th of October YEN will hold the second meet-up, this time hosted by Zyka in Trosa. For two days we will dance, talk yosakoi and have fun together. It has been half a year since the first meet-up and those of us who participated then are exited to meet each other again, and for the rest excited to finally meet more yosakoi loving people.

The meet-up will also bring Europe’s first Yosakoi festival, YEN Mini Yosakoi Festival, which will take place in Trosa on the 18th of October. This will be a unique chance to see the yosakoi teams from Europe and experience many different kinds of yosakoi! Three of the European teams will take part in the meet-up and the festival, Raiden yosakoi, Yosakoi Hinodemai Paris and Sakuramai Poland. We will both perform together and as teams.

And most of all, for Zyka the festival will be the first time we present our new dance Bankuramou! Don’t miss it!

The festival will take place at Folkets Hus Trosa on the 18th of October 12.00 o’clock.
100kr for and adult50kr for children up to 12.

You can either buy tickets at the book-store in Trosa or here.

Find out more about the festival on the facebook event!

[Blog] YEN’s first meet-up

This past weekend we had the first meet-up with YEN, Yosakoi European Network, in Leiden in the Netherlands. Four out of YEN’s five teams participated, sadly the German team Todoroki couldn’t be there. From Zyka WHOlock and I, Oushou, participated. It was an unbelievably fun weekend that we didn’t want to come to an end. For two and a half day we danced, eat, laughed, walked and had fun together.

Leiden is a beautiful city with channels and small cute houses. We arrived in the evening and got to see the waters lit up by the city lights as we walked to our host’s house. The members of Raiden was kind enough to let all of us visiting dancers stay with them, saving us the cost of hotel and also giving us an even better chance of getting to know each other.

Leiden at night

Leiden at night

Being so many is a lot different from training just with Zyka, the energy level is nothing alike. All of our teams have different styles, and though we have some dances in common we dance them in different ways.

All most everyone who participated in the dancing during Saturday

During the meet-up lasted we all got to know each other. Though from different countries and speaking different languages we are united in our love for yosakoi. And maybe our craziness as well.

And of course a strange-face shot as well

While there simply wasn’t enough time to talk with everyone as much as I would have wished, it feels like I have known the people I did talk to a lot longer than just for a few days.

Performing for each other is a good opportunity to try other teams costumes

Group-shot of the leaders of the different teams. To the very right is Jordin, leader of the one man Kyoensodefure team Sairanzensen who also took part in the meet-up

The meet-up was organized by Raiden besides yosakoi also had us discover Leiden together during an exciting scavenger hunt and took us out to try local specialities such as pancakes. They were so big!

WHOlock found a bunch of other One Piece crazy people and our last night in Leiden was spent discussing and looking at One Piece things, drinking tea and listing to beautiful piano playing.

The One Piece team with a much admired pop-up book

 

In the autumn we have invited YEN to Stockholm for a second meet-up and before that we have the summer performances we still hope will happen. There is much to look forward to and together I’m sure we will be able to spread yosakoi even more in Europe.

See you again soon!

– 王将

Oushou