Sunday, August 8: Towada City Samba Festival
I’m always looking for stuff to do on the weekends and came across this festival on the internet by accident so we decided to check it out because Towada City is about 30 minutes by car (on local roads) from Misawa. I was curious to see what kind of Samba Carnival happens in Japan. The festival, though advertised as taking place from 11:00 to 13:00, was rather brief. It began near Chuo Park of the Towada Arts Area, continued on Sanba Street, and finished at Taisozuka Park. Plenty of male photographers were on-hand, jockeying for good positions, to record this event.
Kyle’s sure there were other festivities, but we were pressed for time because we had to return our two Japanese home stay students back to base and it was extremely hot that day for the little ones. Our two adopted Japanese students were surprised by the scantily-dressed women gyrating down six city blocks. Although they had never heard of a samba festival in Japan, they knew samba originated in Brazil.
The only other Samba Carnival I discovered via internet research takes place in Asakusa (Tokyo – Toei subway Station, Asakusa Line) on the last Saturday of August. Asakusa’s festival, larger in size, is a dance contest of 30-40 teams (about 1,500 samba dancers and musicians), divided into three groups – professional Brazilian dancers, original dance moves, and Brazilian percussion musicians. In addition, the winning samba group from Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival is invited to attend. Brazil probably has the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan and its roots may be traced back to 1908 when 165 families journeyed to a port near San Paulo in hope of making a better living.
Beginning of parade
Brazilian samba dancer
Lively dancers
Japanese photographer getting a backside view
Observe his long sleeves and gloves, as not to get a tan
Japanese samba dancer
Colourful costumes
Japanese percussionists
Little children getting involved with music
Local Japanese band
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