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!

Seventh, and final costume! 

For more pictures of Naomichi Hanazono's performance, visit my Flickr account:

happy_evil

For more information on Naomichi Hanazono, visit his social media links below!

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Thank you for reading!

.x

AKI MATSURI: PART II

Earlier this past week I went and blogged about the morning activities of Aki Matsuri. My friends and I stayed at the festival for a while and the amount of photos I took, I could not keep them all in one post. Splitting posts into two is always a good idea anyways. Anywho, let's get on to the photos? 

When the sun was setting we went and decided to watch some of the performers. 

I have this wonderful admiration for the Taiko Drummers. They always seem to know how to work the crowd and give back so much energy! 

After we watched for a while, the announcers went and said that the shrine ceremony was about to start. If I'm not mistaken it's called the Mikoshi? Or O-Mikoshi? Don't quote me on that. Super admirable seeing so many people, the majority being the elderly carry an extremely heavy shrine on their shoulders and jump around. Freaking cool seeing it in person! 

So cool seeing them bring the entire shrine around the event. I can only guess how much this shrine weighed! At one point we saw this guy in the very front look extremely exhausted but he still carried on jumping up and down! 

You know, watching the group jump up and down somehow kinda made our little party hungry. The amount of food vendors in the event kind of overwhelmed us but we all decided on one thing: curry!

We ate at Curry Zen and up to now I'm still dreaming about how delicious the place was. I ordered a Croquette Curry and it was absolutely amazing. I still dream about it today. 

 

The Croquette was filled with sweet corn and seasoned perfectly. I loved the curry also!!

We hung around at a tent and were debating on what to do next. After a while we decided to go on and wait for the final performance of the night, which was Naomichi Hanazono's, wait for that blogpost soon! 

Funny story. When we sat down at the table there was a lone water bottle that didn't belong to any of us. Keita thought it was his and took a swig from it. Confusion happens because the liquid in it was sweet tasting. We all thought he was gonna die. 

Keita's still alive. 

Keita went and washed the gross sweet water he accidentally drank with Ramune. Ramune's packaging is so weird, the marble serves no actual purpose but I always thought it was a cool aesthetic. 

Nikki borrowed my camera and took photos around. When she came back she showed these!

During our time eating dinner, the Obon Dance part of the festival was taking place. The Taiko drummers were at the center whilst people danced around. The Obon is a traditional Japanese Buddhist custom where people perform the Bon Odori, a dance where they honor their ancestors and deceased relatives' spirits. Quite beautiful if you ask me. 

The Takoyaki line still was so long. 

Then, cosplayers!

Nikki and Sabrina posing with Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon, and Ryuuko Matoi from Kill la Kill. The Ryuuko cosplayer's Katatachi Basami was freaking spot on. 

Saw my friend Kela dressed as Bolin from Legend of Korra and his friend dressed as Roy Mustang! Super awesome seeing friends in amazing cosplays. 

It was so nice seeing the performers on stage heading the Bon Odori dance, the whole thing went on for another thirty minutes, until it was time for Hanazono-san to perform.

Stay tuned for Naomichi Hanazono's performance post soon. 

thanks for reading!

.x