Not much happening this last weekend. I was cutting through Tenmonkan on Friday, when I discovered that the open space in front of Lotteria and the Yamakataya department store was being used for another Hawai'ian fest. In previous fests there was a lot more live music, and performers flown in from Hawai'i. Lots of food and clothing, too. This time, there was almost no food, and the selections of crafts and clothes were extremely limited. I didn't see more than 20-30 people in the audience at any given time.
The live stage events consisted primarily of hula dancing by the local dance schools, and maybe 3-4 appearances on stage by one band (I couldn't tell if they were Hawai'ian, or Japanese). The music was mainly old-school hula dance stuff, which is too slow and pretty for me. I took a couple photos on Friday, and returned home.
On Saturday, I went past Lotteria on my way in to the school, and then again when I went on break in the afternoon. There was nothing on stage both times. Finally, at 5:30 PM, as I was returning to the school at the end of my break, there was one hula dancer. I did swing by again Sunday afternoon, and they just had another hula dance group on the stage. Nothing really worth taking photos of.
Hula is apparently extremely popular in Kagoshima - I've seen over 20 groups from the different schools here. But, there are no stand-out dancers that I know. Mainly, they're just people taking lessons for the exercise; amateurs occasionally doing this as a hobby.
Not really great weather, either. Rain on Friday, humid on Saturday, and light drizzles on Sunday (turning to heavy rain Sunday night). A slow weekend.
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