Roppongi Hills Bon-odori 2008

My weekend was pretty much fully spent at the Bon-odori, as I was MC-ing for the 3 days event at the Roppongi Hills arena.

It's an annual event and I've been MC-ing for it for 5 years consecutively ever since the Roppongi hills complex opened.

Each year, I wear different yukatas for the 3 days. I have 11 yukatas in total, and of course, I know how to wear kimono myself. hehe.

Bon-odori is a traditional dance danced around the Yagura (the tower in my back): The drum player plays the drum on the Yagura.

There are set dance routines for every song.

There's a Roppongi hills original Bon-odori song, and a Roppongi original song which I've mastered throughout the years:)

for an official translation of Bon-odori:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonOdori#BonOdori

On the second day, the Blueman Group joined us!

So did Doraemon

Third day, I brought Jaky along:

I made him wear his matsuri happi:

He gets so much attention! and gets his photographs taken all the time!

I'm like, "what about me??"...

Happi (法被, 半被) is a traditional Japanese straight-sleeved coat usually made of indigo or brown cotton and imprinted with a distinctive mon (crest). Originally, these represented the crest of a family, as happi were worn by house servants. Later, happi commonly began to display the crests of shops and organisations. Also, formerly, firefighters wore happi and the symbol on their backs referred to the group with which they were associated. In the Edo period, firefighters were paid not for actual firefighting activity but instead for promptness and presence at the scene of a fire. Thus, wearing conspicuous happi and dancing on intact roofs near fires with matoi was essential for them. In English, "happi" is most often translated as "happi coat" or "happy coat". -wikipedia