I've been writing on Toyama travel for a minute but this is the first time I've headed to a festival for this blog. Everybody knows Japan is full of tradition and rich history, folk dance is one of the those traditions still alive and well today. Toyama was fire bombed during World War 2 and much of the prefecture was literally burnt to the ground. Fortunately, the town of Yatsuo is tucked into the mountains and remains now much as it did a long time ago. Every September first second and third thousands of people descend upon the streets to the Yatsuo Festival. There are brick streets and old buildings everywhere. There is nothing modern about this town. It was one of the few places in Japan I have not seen a convenience store. It sets the stage for a long running annual dancing festival, where young ladies and gentleman do a slow melodic dance. Although, it's not just the dance people come for, but a variety of things. It's really easy to get to by hopping on the train bound for Takayama from Toyama Station. There will be hordes of people on the train and special guidance at the station and even Owara dancers outside of Toyama putting on sort of an advertising demo of the dance. You will not miss it and can not possibly miss it. It's definitely one if not Toyama prefectures most celebrated festival as people from all over Japan come to this event.
The dance in itself is simple. The music is slow and equally simple. The music sounded to me like old guitars, old drums, and old people singing to each other. The beauty is in the tradition and just how in sync everybody is. Everybody doing the dance I saw was in perfect synchronization. In the town of Yatsuo they practice all year for these three days and it really shines when you see it all in action. The ambience and atmosphere was really special. Everyone became quiet as hundreds of people at a time horded around the dancers to watch the them in action. I could only hear music, singing, and cameras flashing. It was pretty surreal indeed. The dancers walk around the town and go to different sections to different little parades of the dance. All of the dancers are young and not married. They have hats guarding their face as I think it adds to the synchronization of the dance and beauty. There are children also but only in the main parts of the parade. I saw some of the ladies walking without the mask. I'm here to say they probably don't need them. Beware there are outrageous amounts of people, I've only seen crowds like this in Tokyo.
The city is really old. It has lots of food vendors and souvenir shops throughout the city. There is no shortage of restauraunts as well, the problem would be finding a spot in the restauraunts to sit down with crowd of people hitting the small town. I personally think most of the people are coming just to experience an older Japan not typically seen now a days with all the technology. There are no cars, no advertisements, just old peaceful small town Yatsuo, and the old peaceful dance to watch. Everything was quite pricy so if you are worried about the contents of your wallet you might want to throw some snacks and sake in your backpack. You won't regret it. I really enjoyed the old Japanese drunk men living it up in Yatsuo.
There will also be small dance troops walking around the city singing small what seemed to be pep rally chants. I didn't understand what they were saying but they're tune was stuck in my head and all the people around me seemed to get excited. This part was nice because it was just young people singing, it was a nice contrast to the older genrations singing on the main part of the festival. There will be many many people at these small events as well so take care to arrive early. I was extremely surprised there were so many people there. It was like this last year though and it will be like it next year too. I could really see this was a huge event and very loved by people across japan. The sheer amount of people really spoke to how celebrated and cherished this small towns event was.
If you are in Toyama on September 1-3, I really reccomend coming to see this. It does not get more historical or traditional in any sense of those two words. You will see amounts of people not seen in Toyama but at this time. You will see drunk old men. You will people dancing in beautiful old Japanese harmony. Most importantly you will see the town of Yatsuo and it's pride. I was so happy to see how happy the town and it's people were for having this beautiful event. All of it had a really fun and cool unique energy to it. I think I'll head back next year, hope to see you there.