The Squid Dance, and Other Festivals

We didn't realize before getting here that we'd be arriving in such a busy season for Hakodate - but there are a ton of different festivals going on in this season!

I guess we'll go over them in chronological order, so we're starting with:

Sea Day and the Port Festival

So technically the first celebration was Sea Day, but we don't have any pictures from that day because it kind of caught us off-guard. But shortly thereafter was the Hakodate Port Festival, and we knew about this one!

To be honest, we're still fuzzy on the specifics of what everything is celebrating, but we do know they celebrate with fireworks!

So the other week, on Sunday after church, we hung out with some of our friends for the afternoon, and then come evening they took us to nearby Motomatchi park (which we'll return to very soon for another festival) to watch the fireworks.

The view before the fireworks started. This is one of my favorite views in Hakodate, I think.

They were setting the fireworks off near the train station, and apparently if we'd gone there (and put up with the massive crowds there), they would've been synchronized to music!

The Squid Dance

Technically just part of the Port Festival, but such a big occasion it needs its own heading.

In order to understand and appreciate the squid dance, you have to understand that Hakodate is a big squid fishing city. Every different place in Japan has their own local specialties they're super proud of, and one of Hakodate's is their squid. They're so proud of it, in fact, it has its own song and dance that you sing and dance along with at the two, back-to-back parades.

The full lyrics to the squid dance song.

The lyrics roughly translate to:

Hakodate's specialty
Squid dance [or dancing squid]
Squid sashimi
Salted squid guts
Squid somen
And one more thing
As a bonus
Stuffed squid
Squid squid
Squid squid
Squid dance

The parades are like five hours long; I think every school, club, and association in Hakodate has a float or a dance team or something.

Several of the floats were like this one - entirely unpowered, just *dragged* by a bunch of people.

One thing Cassie and I both appreciated was the significant sidewalk traffic management - there were at least dozens, probably hundreds of cops around just making sure sidewalks always had walking space.

There's also tons of street vendors and snacks!

The World Music and Dance Festival

Shortly thereafter, but as far as I'm aware completely unrelated to the Port Festival, there was a World Music and Dance Festival that lasted for a full week. They had like five stages, each rotating through several different performers from around Japan and the world, with a different lineup each day!

The festival was at Motomatchi Park; this was the main stage.

One of the standouts for us was this guy, who had like a comedic stunt show - running himself ragged trying to keep bowls spinning while doing other tricks. The funniest part was how often he would legitimately mess up; it was very unpolished, but it came across very honest and earnest rather than lazy.

One of the draws for the festival was all the food stalls!

It was a week of long days for the people working there - gates opened at like 3pm and it went on until, I think, 9 or 10?

Hopefully this explains why we've been so slow to post about each of these things - we've just been so busy doing all of them! I've got another post loaded in the chamber about some of the stuff we've been doing with friends, but that'll have to wait for another day!