Bon Odori Festival.


The Bon Festival is a summer festival in Japan to honor the spirits of one's ancestor. This custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

I guess it's like the Qing Ming festival celebrated by the Chinese. Just that we don't have any traditional dance, or food, or games like what they have in Japan. Why is Japan always more awesome than other countries?

I think the correct term will be the Bon Festival but here in Malaysia, the Japanese Expatriate & Immigrant's Society organizes the Bon Odori Festival and it has been going for 37 years. I had heard about this festival since I was young and had always wanted to go but no one will accompany me. I finally had the chance this year as my brother's college organized a trip for this festival.

We're quite early when our bus arrived at the stadium at Shah Alam. There wasn't really a lot people yet but the food stalls are already set up. My brother and I weren't really hungry so we decided to check out what they were selling and compared the prices of the food.

I was hoping for takoyaki but there wasn't a single stall selling it. Eventually, we gave into our temptation (everyone was eating around us) and bought ourselves food. I had unagi with rice and my brother ate ramen. We shared our dessert, which is shaved ice with grape syrup together. We didn't really spent a lot so I guess it was okay.


As it is a festival from Japan, it's usual to see Japaneses in their yukatas (a Japanese garment) strolling around. Many Malaysians also took the chance to try on yukatas and pretty much dress up themselves. Not only the girls did it, the boys joined in the fun too.

I don't think I will ever dressed up in a yukata because it's freakin' hot there and I don't have one. It'll be too troublesome to get one. Anyway, I already wore them once in Japan.


After we finished eating, they had a few performances going on. One of them was the Bon Odori (a dance) and they prepared a stage in the middle of the stadium. On it they had I assume is Taiko drums and there were girls surrounding it. As the guys hit the drums, the girls will dance and walking in circles.


Me and my brother was at the very front watching the girls dance when my brother noticed that the crowd was following the girls and dancing too! Everyone was surrounded the stage in a big circle and tried to follow the dance steps. It was an amazing sight.

I could see that my brother was eager to join them so I accompanied him. It was fun dancing even if it's with strangers. The choreography was simple and fun, and they were always repeating so it was easy (at least for me) to get it after a few tries.


Just look at how many people are having fun dancing.

Then, they performed another kind of dance at another location in front of the audiences. They also had a taiko performance with really, really, really, big drums. There wasn't really much going on during the festival. But it's not like it's totally boring either.

I didn't stayed long enough to see the fireworks because my brother's group left early to avoid traffic. I did saw some people I know and talked to a friend of mine. She's so skinny now.

However, things didn't end well as I fell during my way through the exit. My knees were hurt but it's not a big deal. Some stupid, irresponsible person left garbage for me to slip on. Yeah, otherwise it's a great day.

Maaaan, I feel like eating takoyaki now.

---

Things will never go back to how they were, that's why it's called the past.

You passed that moment of your life, and you can never rewind back time.

People grow and they will change, like how a frog will never become a tadpole again.

Mistakes are normal in life. If you have never regretted in life, you're doing it wrong.

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