[Blog] 30th of August – Final days in Japan

Final days in Japan

There are still 2 days in Japan I haven’t told you about! The festival was the 10-12 of august, last blog post was about the 10th.

On the 11th we started with sightseeing in Kochi castle. Very beautiful! After lunch we split up in pairs to experience the yosakoi festival together with a team from Kochi. Me and Oushou had the pleasure to join the team Central, which is very cool! Central is a team that has existed for a long time and are very good. Waiting for their performance with them was like seeing the festival backstage, sitting in a street next to the parade street that was full with waiting yosakoi teams. When they performed we got to ride in the truck playing music, called Jikatasha in Japanese. They had real instruments on the truck that played the music live! Standing up there watching them perform was so amazing! We really got to feel the atmosphere.

From Central’s truck

After the performance we continued watching other teams performing. Yosakoi is fun because it can be so many different things, all the dances we saw were so different. We also got to try being “competition venue staff”, meaning giving medals to good dancers. Nervous but fun! They were all so good, it was hard to choose who to give the medals too.

After dinner it was time for the biggest, coolest, most important performance: On Otetsuji in the evening. We lined up along the street before the parade street, other teams in front and behind us. The sky was dark, but the spotlights on the parade street was so bright. If you peeked between waiting trucks you could see silhouettes of dancers against the bright lights and hear their music. All waiting dancers were filled with anticipation, so strong you could feel it in the air. Finally it was our turn. It went really well, and was so much fun! This time we could hear our music, luckily. I enjoyed it fully, and I think everyone else did too.

This was sadly our last performance with Yosakoi Kokusai Koruy Tai. We had a dispersal ceremony after were the leaders thanked us for joining and we them.

Oushou and WHOlock with some of the other ambassadors

The 12th was the last full day in Japan. We started with visiting a Buddhist temple at Godaisan mountain and got to try meditating. The temple was very beautiful, tatami rooms with sliding doors opened up to a traditional garden.

One of the reasons we came to Kochi was to be formally appointed ambassadors at a ceremony. This was held midday at the Kochi castle stage. Very formal, all of us lined up on the staged, got a diploma by the governor and bowed. Each team also got a really big flag which had to be sent home by mail as it couldn’t fit in the luggage.

We spent the entire afternoon watching performances. The last day it is only the best teams performing and everyone was so good! Really inspiring. Before dinner we got some time to relax in an onsen, because dinner was an important, formal, affair with lots of important people. We both talked to a lot of different people, dancers, festival organisers from Tokyo , business men from Kochi, and many others. Mostly Oushou since I don’t speak japanese but I did my best. The organisers had made a video with material from the first two days which was very fun to see. The evening ended with everyone dancing a traditional dance together which was very fun.

Some of the ambassadors had a goodbye party at the hotel were we made plans for future work and cooperation. After intense packing and some sleep me and Oshou left the hotel before 6 am following morning.

So that was our Japan trip! Really great, meeting new people, seeing amazing performances, dancing in Kochi again and lots of tasty food! I look forward to returning next year with our international team!

Thank you everyone in Kochi for making this experience possible!

WHOlock, Ho-san from Central and Oushou

 

– 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] 21th of June

Hi everyone, it’s been a while.

We have moved outside again and like the past summer we dance in Humlegården in Stockholm. On sunny days there are a lot a people there, and many people training so it can be a bit crowded at times but we are enjoying it nevertheless. Being outside makes it possible to have longer trainings and the fresh air helps us stay focused. At least most of the time. While the rain can be a bother at times we are over all having great fun.

Park and Iruka?

The last few weeks we have practices what we call rotation, which means we rotated between the different positions. In Hatsuyuki there are eight different positions and even after learning them it can be hard to keep the sometimes rather small differences in mind when suddenly having to change position. It is hard work learning them properly but knowing all positions helps us keeping track of each other while dancing. Synchronization is something we need to get better on and this is good practice.

Park, Amo and Shishou

WHOlock and Iruka?

We have also gained a new member in YEN, the French team Yosakoi Paris Hinodemai that was started just last year and are based in Paris. We are happy that they have joined YEN and hope to see them during the next meet-up, which by the way are planned to happen here in Sweden on the 17 – 18th of October. We are planing on putting up a performance together so keep an eye out for that!

Yosakoi Paris Hinodemai

 

-王将

Oushou

[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

 

[Blog] 22th of October

We’ve started working on a new concept! It will stay a secret for yet some time, at the moment we are thinking of presenting it sometime next spring, and first performance sometime during the summer following that. So please look forward to that!

The concept is written by one of our members. We actually had four concepts to choose from so the creator of each concept got to present it to the rest of the group and then everyone voted. We are very happy with the one we chose, even if it was sad to have to not choose the other ones. The members were also asked to choose which creator groups they wanted to belong to, choosing between Concept, Costume, Music and Choreography. While there might be changes in the groups later on here is how they look at the moment, the leader of the group marked with a star:
 

Concept – *WHOlock, Oushou

Music – *Amo, Park, WHOlock

Costume – *Iruka?, Peanuts, Oushou

Choreography – *Oushou, Iruka?, Amo

 
There is much that needs to be done but I believe all of us are looking forward to it!

On another note we have started a European Yosakoi Network together with Raiden Yosakoi, a team from the Neatherlands. So far the Polish team Sakuramai Poland has joined but we are doing our best to contact and invite the rest of the European teams as well. Together we have a better chance of spreading Yosakoi in Europe and maybe we can even do some sort of Yosakoi festival or collaboration together at some point!

– 王将

Oushou