festival day in Osaka - kappo

there was this festival today along midosuji avenue, and unfortunately it wasnt quite what i expected it to be.. it wasnt much like any of the japanese festivals that i've been to, and it seems like the highlights were stands by every prefecture in japan showcasing their local products and tourism brochures, some performers on the side and a mini flea market/busker section. it was extremely crowded - and osakan aunties are super rude and push you like anything! - and we didnt get to check out the prefecture booths as it was simply too crowded.

here are some pictures though:

the balloons that were released into the air, signalling the start of the procession/parade

 

american-style cheerleaders doing their thing - it was rather bizarre to be seeing american-style stuff at a japanese festival. then again, chingay is somewhat like that i guess?

they closed off a normally busy road, and policemen (at least that's what i think they are - there're lots of uniformed pple in japan) were trying to get us to clear the area so that the members of the procession could pass

the cheerleaders led the procession

then came a band.. who were playing "stars and stripes", which made the americans whom i was with feel extremely weird.. haha.

then came the media pple, who ran in front so that they could turn backwards and catch a glimpse of.......

the mayor and celebrity twins (whom i've never seen, but that's what my friend told me). i met the mayor - the guy next to the one of the twins who's in orange - with the other ALTs from my batch not long after i came to osaka. he was formerly a newscaster, if i remember correctly.

there were also people from the queensland police playing bagpipes.. i have no idea why they're there, and why they're playing bagpipes and wearing kilts when they're from australia. then again, foreigners in singapore probably wonder why we have people from other countries participating in our chingay parade. which is a good question since i dont know the answer to that either!

apart from the procession, there were also some other performers, such as this band:

as well as a bevy of beautiful women clad in gorgeous kimonos.. they're past winners of kimono-wearing contests. i'm not quite sure whether the kimono or the person wearing it is the focus of the competition, but they're all rather pretty..

there were also some people doing performance "art", like this bunch of people who were having some "pick up your own trash" campaign.. 

it was all very weird with men in garbage bags

and even one posing as a dustbin..

and what they did was that some of the "uniformed" people passed audience and passers-by little scraps of paper which you feed to the garbage-bag men, who'll take the rubbish from you with tongs and dump that scrap into a bin behind..

(the girl above is one of the JETs.. a korean-american/american-korean)

there were also saner stuff like this 'graffiti' artist

and a display featuring miniature old houses

very exquisitely made..

i think being singaporean makes me far more skilled at moving through a crowd than the others.. i dont even have to push, and i made my way through the throng of people a lot faster then the rest.. heh.