Obon

A week and a half ago, I was heading to Nago when I passed by the athletic field in the center of Higashi. All the lights were on and there were a bunch of people doing eisa (a type of traditional Okinawan dance). I stopped by that night to see what was happening. It was a great choice.

Almost two weeks later, I had one of the best nights of my time here in Japan.

Obon is a yearly holiday where people pay respects to their ancestors. They call the spirits of the dead from the sea for a few days, sending them back a few days later. While I'm unsure as to how things are done on mainland Japan, in Okinawa, eisa (as performed on Obon) seems to be a sort of celebration/thanks to the spirits.

So starting at 5:00 pm on Thursday, we danced at various locations throughout a part of the village and we did that until midnight. We took breaks between performances and were even treated to lots of food and drink by the people who were hosting Obon parties (who I found out later, had paid to have us perform for them - this itself is a huge fundraiser for the youth group that organized the eisa).

The event almost didn't happen for me. Over the week and a half of practice, my right knee started to bother me a lot. I went to a doctor on Tuesday and he said, "Stop all stressful activity." Me: "Even eisa?" Doc: "Even eisa." I was crushed.

So I showed up on Thursday with the intent of just taking photographs and video. But when the first round of practice was called for, I jumped in and gave it a shot. No problem! Nothing hurt (I was also using the left leg to compensate for a lot of the up and down movement). We made our way to the first performance spot and by the end of the fourth song (out of five) my left knee started to hurt more than the right one ever had. I sat out the last song and regretted my bad luck.

The next location, I didn't dance, I just took pictures. It felt so lame! Everyone dancing and me standing off to the side in full outfit wishing I could dance. Upon reaching the third location, I decided to let adrenaline run its course for the night - and I danced. I didn't bend my knees as much as everyone else, I didn't spin as fast, doing whatever I could to keep the stress from getting too intense. A little bit of alcohol also may have helped. But before I knew it, we had reached the last location of the night, just around midnight. The longest set of the night, I kept getting encouragement from those around me, a great boost. We sent Obon out with great energy and made our way back to the community center to celebrate our two weeks of hard work and one of the most enjoyable nights I've had here in Okinawa.