He Who Dared: AKI MATSURI: Naomichi Hanazono's Performance.

This post is extremely overdue and I'm a bit embarrassed to have completely forgotten about it. So the last two blog posts I made were in reference to my adventure with my friends to Aki Matsuri three weeks ago. This post in particular is gonna wrap that all up with some photos I took during Naomichi Hanazono's performance. Hanzono-san was the special guest this year and to summarize his entire act, that would require a completely different blog post. Long story short, Hanazono-san is freaky talented in combining very traditional Japanese Enka music, with a modern vibe and a touch of avant garde. You're gonna understand the avant garde thing in a little bit.

It was actually kinda funny, my friends and I just wanted to watch him because we were extremely curious as to how his acts were going to go down, and somehow we all ended up sitting right at the front row. Front row=Fantastic Pictures. Hanazono-san performed a total of 4 songs, all spaced out with traditional dances and elaborate costume changes. His two backup dancers were extremely fierce women who looked like ninjas ready to kill.

Anywho, here's just a selection of some of the photos of his performance. You can find the rest of them on my flickr, which is on the right side of my blog!

His backup dancers came out wearing these absolutely beautiful robes.

It was pretty impressive that the three of them underwent a complete costume change in under 30 seconds.

This was his third costume change within 15 minutes!!

Fourth!! You can now see how avant garde and amazing his costumes were. Whomever designed them, my hat goes off to you.

There was a short interval where the two backup dancers came out and taught us a little hand dance to do when the final song would be played. The backup dancer who spoke the instructions was really out of breath but that just goes to show how hardworking she was! We all cheered her on, because hey dancing your heart out on stage while having to do quick costume changes is not an easy thing! Major major props to her for being able to teach the dance!

Then during his dance break, he switched into his sixth costume! The backup dancer who taught us the dance came up behind him and tore off the first layer of his costume pictured above, revealing this red and gold one!

Perks of sitting front row? You get pictures where they look directly at you! Hanazono-san, if you're reading this I hope you remember my friends and I!