Young girls dressed in vivid purple, pink, and yellow yukatas walked beside their parents while visiting stalls filled with games and traditional food. In between performances, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and U2 played over the loud speaker. A children’s choir exuberantly sang Annie’s “Tomorrow” in between Japanese songs.
This vibrant scene embraced me when I visited Akimatsuri, a Japanese festival, in Dallas this past weekend. When I first entered the festival, I was greeted with a cheerful “Ohayō gozaimasu” (good morning)! From that point, I was struck by the interplay between different cultures. Over the loudspeaker, announcements were made in Japanese and English. In a stall containing various anime figurines, posters, and other toys, I overheard a little boy enthusiastically exclaiming to his mother, “¡Ay, está Naruto!”
Performances included Baylor’s Japanese Student Association (JSA), Kendo, Judo, and a handful of other dances. In one performance, two women, masquerading as a couple taking a stroll, danced to crooning, peaceful traditional music. Rather than quick, complicated movements typical of Western dance, the dancers’ movements were slow, brought more focus to the hands, and were full of symbolism. Later, Baylor JSA danced to a traditional song called “Sōran Bushi,” which originated in Hokkaidō, Japan, and depicts the daily lives of fishermen with movements representing ocean waves, pulling fishing lines, and tossing barrels.
Various types of Japanese food were being sold. Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake, was eaten with chopsticks and explained to me as savory rather than sweet (if you have had HRC Toasties before, you can fully appreciate the difference between these two words). Yakult, a dairy product that is like drinking yogurt, were being handed out for free.
There were various games available, some of which involved makeshift yoyos and fish as prizes. The former game involved trying to pull a balloon yoyo out of a pool of water with a small hook attached to a piece of paper. The balloon was decorated and filled with a small amount of water with a rubber band tied to it, allowing an elastic yoyo-like motion. The latter game involved trying to catch fish. At one point, I passed by some children who had unfortunately tipped over one of their cups containing their prize fish, frantically trying to retrieve the flopping three centimeter long fish.
One of the final performances, Music Together Dallas, which has classes for children, had an interactive performance, asking the children to follow instructions such as wave your arms, jump up and down, and turn around. One of the women told the children that she did not know what else for them to do and asking one toddler, held the microphone for him to speak. He thought hard for a moment, then answered, “um… wiggle?” And thus all the children had to dance and wiggle. It was absolutely adorable.
For those of you who would like to learn more about Japanese culture, I suggest next year attending Akimatsuri. It was an amazing experience to see many traditional performances and watch the interplay of different cultures. As a BIC student, I am sure you are aware that learning about other cultures needs to be an active, interactive process, and I advise that you search out numerous opportunities to extend your experience of other cultures beyond the classroom and mandatory extended learning activities. By pursuing a cultured life, you become more knowledgeable of your identity and position in the vast world we live in.
Clarissa Anderson is a sophomore BIC student majoring in journalism.