Joy on the Streets of Shimokitazawa
Updated: Sep 10
The dance is called Awaodori and it originates from the island of Shikoku in Japan. The drums pulsing through the streets, the sheer exuberance of the dancers, the brilliant colors, men, women, and children dancing and parading through the streets of Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, Japan! Streets of joy! I could not get enough of it!!!
Shimokitazawa is one of the many burghs in Tokyo. This one, the ancestral home of Yoko's family, the Nogamis. A little rain this night, but when you hear the drums pounding down the narrow streets....who cares about a little rain!
Yoko remembered her roots in this place- the shops and stores, the groceries and hardware stores, the sento (public bath) where she would go with her grandmother, the elementary school where her father went to school. The elementary school remains, though altered over the years. But the place has changed radically. It is now a shopping district for "vintage" clothes. T shirts have become a thing. Some collector items sell in the thousands of dollars! But on this night Japan reaches back into its ancestral roots. Awadori dancing through the streets!
Shops and restaurants line the street- each of them small places that seat about a max of twenty people , all scattered up and down the street. Ramen, soba, sushi, Italian pasta, a doughnut shop, dumpling shops. One night we ate at a dumpling restaurant that served a maximum of 6 people. All kinds of crescent shaped dumplings filled with a variety of fish, or wild boar, or whale, or bear. He had hundreds of varieties it seemed. This night we ate at a Jamaican grill where a clutch of islanders were playing a loud game of dominos.
If you hear the sound of drums in the street in Japan, go find the joy.
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