My Very First “Yosakoi” Festival in Mid-summer!

Hello! I took part in “Yosakoi” which is a big dance festival in Kochi, Japan. The festival has a 73 year history and this year nearly 200 groups,18,000 people from everywhere participated. It was my first time joining this festival, so I want to share that experience!

It All Started with a Friend Saying, “Let’s Dance Together”

To be honest, as a kid I had absolutely no interest in performing or dancing in front of someone, so I never went to watch Yosakoi. The turning point came after I became an adult. I began going to the festival to see my friend dance.

Once I actually saw it in person — the dancers looked like they were really enjoying, the gorgeous costumes, the booming music, each team’s unique features — it moved me and I gradually felt like “I want to dance in this festival, at least once in my life.”

Around that time, my best friend invited me “Let’s dance Yosakoi together and make some memories.” I was worried about if I could balance it with my first year of working in this company, but I decided to take on the challenge this time.

The Team Concept “Pretty”

The team I joined “au” has “Pretty” as its concept. It’s a team known and loved for its rhythmical phrase “Ai ja Ai ja” (This is the love of au), and this year’s costumes were inspired by the traditional drama series “Anpan,” which tells the story of an artist from Kochi. The costumes featured an adorable design based on soft pink and blue. I loved the color and design, and it was one of the things that pushed me to join this team.

Cute choreography and costumes are a given for this team, but they also have a special moment mid-performance where the costume transforms. Plus, we used glowing Naruko (wood hand clappers), and I was excited imagining how beautiful it would look at night! They have other unique features as well, like the many bubbles coming out of a truck, and a character squad from folktales, familiar from au’s TV commercials, dancing along with us.

As you can see, this team is packed with crowd-pleasing features!

Sparkling truck leading dancers at night

What I Felt During the Practice Period

When practice first began, I focused on just memorizing the choreography. Once I had the moves down, my days became about staying constantly aware of formations and lines, and figuring out on my own how to dance better.

Practice was really tough, but I made more friends as I kept practicing. And they motivated me to keep going to practice almost every day.

What I struggled with most was the costume transformation. I had a hard time pulling the costume out while holding the Naruko so that it wouldn’t make any noise, and I still couldn’t quite get it right just a few days before the performance, so I practiced it over and over. We kept adjusting the costume itself through trial and error until a few days before the festival, so that the transformation would go smoothly, and that turned out to be quite a challenging process for me.

During the final push of practice, we danced nonstop, and I was getting tired day by day. There were moments I worried whether I could really keep dancing through all four days of the performance under the blazing sun. At the same time, I was really excited.

The Enjoyable Four Days

On the first day, since it was the reveal day of the glowing Naruko and the costume transformation, I was incredibly nervous about all sorts of things, but everything went well, and I was truly happy the moment the special Naruko lit up in the darkness and the crowd reacted with a roar of “Ooooh!

The costume, which was a soft color before the transformation, turned bright afterward, and under the lights that color really popped. Experiencing the beauty of that contrast between before and after while dancing it myself was something special to me.

During the main festival, I danced while staying focused and disciplined but also enjoyed every moment, since it was a competition and we were being judged. On the third day, it was the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in Japan that day, and we performed in intense heat, but we kept drinking water regularly and danced through it without ever losing our smiles. At Otesuji, the main venue for judging, the atmosphere was completely different like everyone was focused on winning a prize.

The after-festival was pure fun, and the bond with the other dancers around me deepened more and more. What’s great about this festival is being able to connect through dancing with people you wouldn’t normally meet, regardless of age.

Some venues even had a system where you could get a limited-edition medal for good dancers. At Kochi Station, I received a wood-carved medal, which became a really happy memory as well. This time I only got one medal, my first ever, and I wished I could have gotten more, so that was a bit frustrating. I really want a flower medal which is the rarest medal, so I’m secretly thinking I might just keep dancing until I get one…

Another thing unique about this festival is being able to enjoy an alcoholic drink outdoors even in the middle of the day. Even though we were exhausted because of heat and hard dancing, we kept our spirits up with a drink — making sure to stay hydrated as well 🙂 This is the local style to made it through all four days!

Performance at main street in Kochi

What Yosakoi Taught Me About Kochi

Once I actually danced, I realized it’s so much more fun than just watching.

The whole team builds up a shared concept and keeps working toward it together. It’s a group effort, but each individual dancer can still be a star!

After taking part in this festival, I truly understood how seriously everyone commits to win an award, to do their best, and simply to enjoy themselves. I believe it’s the effort of everyone involved in Yosakoi that makes such a high-quality, exciting festival possible. That’s why it brings so many people to come to Kochi from both inside and outside.

Through this summer’s experience, I’d love to take part in this festival again and help contributing to make Kochi even more lively.

The first day of revealing the glowing Naruko