As mentioned before, there was a LOT going on last weekend, and the thing I really cared about was the Dai Hanya yosakoi event. I'd found a map showing each of the satellite stage locations, but since I had to work on Saturday from 4-5 PM and then again from 6 to 8, I'd hoped to just hit Tenmonkan and then Dolphin Port, but Tenmonkan was taken up with Wan Wan Fest. That just left Dolphin Port for me from 2-4 PM prior to my lesson start. The weather was perfect, and lots of people were out.
K@ito, the juggler I've written about before, had his act going on at the walkway in front of the shops, both Saturday and Sunday, for the tourists. He was kind of bemused a few times when the nearby speakers for the Dai Hanya music drowned out his own PA and he had to stop until the other music died down. He does change up his act occasionally, but the core parts, like this mime bit, never change.
Along with Dai Hanya was Kagoshima's Biggest Flea Market of the Year (their name).
The Dai Hanya main stage, with Sakurajima in the background.
I like this shot, because of the pigeon.
Umm, yeah. The yosakoi dances didn't start until closer to 5:30 PM. Before that, we got cross-dressing comedians and dance studio dance teams. The audience seemed to like it, though.
Part of the flea market. Lots of old clothes, art and baby stuff people no longer wanted.
The Scooby-Doo rip-off jump room was back, too.
The flea market had its own event stage, but I didn't have any real interest in anything on the schedule. Up now is Mozes, a gospel group. Apparently, one of the microphones stopped working or something, and one of the women got kicked off stage so the others could keep singing.
After the comedian, the dance group Shining Star went up on the main stage. I think the boy was with them last year, too. If so, he hadn't improved at all since then.
"If you're happy, then show it."
A few of the yosakoi teams were just hanging out, and posing for photos.
The groups all design their own dances, their own songs, and their own costumes.
Can you see that white line in the middle of the sky?
I was amazed, too.
Kites.
And he wasn't done putting more of them on the line. He was back on Sunday, too.
I had to leave for the school at 3:40 PM, but it was just one lesson. On the way, I swung by the NHK TV broadcasting station just on the off-chance they were doing something themselves. They were. They had a studio open house, and activities for the kids.
There was a small event stage in the front parking lot.
I'm not sure who these guys are, but the one sitting seemed to be a trivia contest host, or something. I didn't have time to hang around to find out what was happening.
NHK mascot character jump room in the rear parking lot.
And the star himself in the flesh.
The student was late, and the lesson didn't finish until 5. Then I ran back to the Park, where most of the flea market people had already packed up and left for the day (some of them did come back on Sunday). My next lesson would be at 6 PM, giving me about 30 minutes at the park during the break. Some female university student got up on stage to announce the start of the yosakoi part, then she stood around for 5 minutes while her male co-host ran around off-stage, completely unprepared for his part of the job. Standing around watching this mini-fiasco didn't make me any more patient. Eventually, the guy got his act together, and they got the stupid ceremonial stuff out of the way (where some old guy read off a script welcoming everyone one to Kagoshima).
First, all of the university dance teams lined up to be introduced.
Staring into the setting sun.
I had time to record the first three groups. The second one was a university team from Taiwan, doing a circus-themed dance piece. They were fun to watch, but all the music was American copyrighted, which I can't get past the youtube blockers. Sigh.
They were good, though. I pushed my luck in recording the third group, then literally ran the 10 blocks back to the school to arrive just in time for the 6 PM lesson start. I continued sweating 15 minutes into the lesson. The last class of the night ended at 8 PM, so I walked up to Amu Plaza to check out the beer garden.
Direct Link to Day 1 video
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