Barrie Youth Ambassadors: Tokunai Festival

Tokunai in Japan: Our Ambassador experience

Written by Coleman Terry

As you’ve read in previous paragraphs, a group of 12 students and 2 chaperones went to Murayama, Japan in August of 2012. I was one of these students, and I can honestly say that it changed my life. Specifically, the Tokunai festival.

The Tokunai festival was essentially one giant street party, with vendors, and dancing, and amazing music for three days in a row. We were lucky enough to dance in the festival. But it didn’t come without preparation. Our group of Ambassadors had to learn a traditional Japanese dance from a man, who spoke next to no English. Although the choreography wasn’t very intricate, we misjudged the speed at which it had to be danced, this was a challenge in itself. The dance involved large arm movements with crisp hands and a unique “clacker”, to be held in the dancers right hand. Then after two nights of practice, we attended a rehearsal for the festival with a few other dance teams from the city in the Rose Garden. It was at this time that we realized how confusing our role may be. We were given two more nights of practice before the first night of the festival (we only had to dance on the Friday of the three days), and we began to feel the pressure. Then, in the midst of our traditional dance, we were given the opportunity to perform the dance that had been choreographed for the goodbye party…with two days left. Considering we hadn’t preformed this dance for a while, we needed the practice. So in two nights, we managed to pull it all together; at last the day of the Tokunai Festival was here.

It was dusk and we were dressed in our traditional clothing (with a little Canadian twist of course). As our anxiety started to build, we drew closer to main stage to preform our Canadian dance. We nailed it, as the choreographer of the dance I think that we did it better than we ever have, and it showed in the crowd, they seemed to love it! After this we began our traditional dance throughout the streets. We had to do 3 hours of dancing, broken up with 15 minutes of dancing, then a 5 minute break (which we spent most of our time taking photos with locals). Needless to say the night was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. The streets were packed with spectators and dancers alike, us amongst them. We danced and danced, and then danced a little more, and by the end of the night, we were thrilled, the adrenaline kept with us until the next day!

On the Saturday night, we return to Tokunai, as spectators. We walked the vendors and saw the dances that we had just been in. It was a totally new perspective. But the kindness and energy of the festival was happily the same. I’m so glad that we experienced Japan the way that we did, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Tokunai Festival

Gavin Lonsberry

When we traveled to Japan, we took part in many different activities and visited many different tourist attractions, learning about Japanese culture. Personally, my favourite method of learning the culture was to experience it hands on. What I am talking about is the Tokunai Festival. This is an age old festival which has been happening for hundreds of years. It is a festival that takes place through the main streets of Murayama, with many different dances, all of the same style. The dance for us lasted 3 hours, and included the parade plus the show we had to do on a stage in front of hundreds of people.

I was lucky enough to perform in the Tokunai parade, not once, not twice but three times! As all my fellow Canadian friends did, we performed during the first parade on Friday. The next day, Saturday, a few of us were lucky enough to get on to a float! We sang and danced and cheered as it scooted by, it was a blast. And lastly, on the last day of Tokunai, a few of us returned to dance one last time, which was a great ball of fun.

The practices leading up to the final performance were grueling, as the extreme heat mixed with the non-stop dancing, making a not so nice combination. One of the nights I was sick from the heat, meaning I had to sit out for a whole practice. It was disappointing that I couldn’t be dancing more and more, but I had to do what was best for me. Seeing all the old posters, newspapers and symbols that were related to and about Tokunai really got my interest. Overall, the Tokunai Festival was hands down my favourite experience, the dancing was so unique and precise, I loved it!

A night filled with energy, excitement and tradition. One that will always live in our hearts that we can never describe to anyone who hasn't experience the Tokunai Festival.

Students practicing their dance as a gift to the City choreographed by Coleman. Our students were asked to perform on stage at the Tokunai, a great honour.