10,000 Eisa Dance Parade

The summer in Okinawa is known for its matsuri (Japanese word for festival). There are tons of them; in fact, the same weekend we went to the 10,000 Eisa Dance Parade, there were six others around the island! Eisa is a traditional Okinawan dance that sets itself apart from the customs of mainland Japan. Eisa is performed mostly by young people to pay respects to the culture, customs, and, well, old people of Okinawa. The dance consists of groups of people playing taiko drums and moving to the sound of the drums. Often times there are Eisa competitions, to see which group has the "best" dance.

The guys in purple/white were competing against the guys in black (pic below)

This team had a very young kid playing drums; I would guess around 7 years old ;)

Walking into Kokusai street (main street in downtown Naha) there is a huge Shisa (Japanese lion-dog thought to protect against evil spirits). We took a pic with him :)

The 10,000 Eisa parade worked like a parade we would see at home - The groups would perform in one area then walk about 100 yards or so, stop, and begin their performance again. That way, people did not have to walk around to see them perform. The performers came to you! Of course, us antsy Americans had to keep walking around to find something new to entertain us.

Here is one group performing. The men played the drums and dance, while the women danced.

This picture has nothing to do with the parade, but I thought it was cute. Haha.

View of the street and the performers

It's buildings like this that make it hit me, "Wow, I live in Japan."

Oh, and don't forget the frog purses on sale. Yes…REAL frogs (or toads?).

More Eisa performers

We got side tracked by the fish market

This guy in the cage is 1. Alive and 2. For sale at the fish market. Yes…To eat. 

Turtle soup, anyone?!

We also got side-tracked by Blue Seal ice cream. So good!

For lunch we stopped and ate at a restaurant on Kokusai street during the parade. The restaurant will be featured in the next post about the food and restaurants here on Okinawa!