Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Koenji Awa Odori Festival!
Hi, everyone! Welcome to Koenji Awa Odori Festival. This is one of the biggest dance festival in Tokyo. Today, I want to introduce this festival to you and hopefully you can feel the energy of this place. Let's dance!
We've been practicing all year round for today. There are many people doing different things normally, but we make time for practice and enjoy this festival together.
Koenji Awa Odori Festival started in 1957. It is held at the end of August every year for two days. Now, the festival is really big and about 10,000 dancers and about 1 million people come to the festival. An Awa Odori our team is called 連 (ren) and actually, I’m in one of the 連 (ren) that's performing in Koenji.
Tokushima Prefecture is where Awa Odori began. Awa is actually the previous name for Tokushima Prefecture, and Odori means “dance”. Together it's called, Awa Odori. Awa Odori is a kind of Japanese traditional performing arts. It can be divided into men's dance and women's dance. Men's dance is wearing 足袋 (tabi) “traditional shoes that are like ankle socks”. You dance with your hands or holding a paper lantern or a fan. Women can also take part in men's dance as well. Women’s dance is wearing 下駄 (geta) and a hat called 編笠 (amigasa) and dance on their tiptoes. お囃子 (O-hayashi) is the name of the music group that plays during the festival for Awa Odori.
Now, I'm going to introduce to you basic movement of Awa Odori.
あやっとさ! (Ayattosa!)
ホヤさ! (hoyasa!)
ホヤさ! (hoyasa!)
ホヤさ! (hoyasa!)
ジャパニーズお祭り (Japanizu o-matsuri) “Japanese festival”
ホヤさ! (hoyasa!)
あやっとさ! (Ayattosa!)
Today's key words and phrases:
観客 (kankyaku) “audience”
提灯 (chōchin) “lantern”
うちわ(uchiwa) “Japanese fan”
下駄 (geta) “Japanese traditional wooden sandals”
足袋 (tabi) “Japanese sock shoes”
連 (ren) “Awa Odori team”
踊り (odori) “dance”.
If you enjoyed this video, please support us on patreon. We release special behind-the-scene videos and extra content only on patreon. Just click the link in the description to learn more. Do you feel like dancing now? I hope you enjoyed this video. Are there any fun festival in your country? Please tell us in the comment here down below. Thank you!

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