Shan-Shan Shangarilla – not my title this is what the dodgy dance version of the song (complete with Mark McCabe style English voice over) called it

So there we are 4 - gaijin trying to follow the directions of the dance instructor. He only speaks Japanese and his teaching method relies mostly on telling us what we are going to do – when we do try it we are expected to have mastered it immediately based on his lengthy verbal instructions. Fortunately most of the people around us (who are fluent in the language) look as mystified as we’re feeling.

A week later and we are now Shan-Shan gurus. Shan-Shan is a local festival that coincides with Obon – an important national festival when Japanese people return to their ancestral homes to pray to and feed their ancestors. It’s like the Blessing of the Graves but more important. Shan-Shan is a rain dance – hence the bell laced umbrellas although why they need a rain dance in the prefecture with one of the highest levels of rainfall in the country is beyond me (I really am in Leitrim, experimental roundabouts and all).

So last Tuesday we went out to beg the powers that be for rain and outside at the moment we’re reaping the benefits. The festival was a lot of fun. The Board of Education rented us yukatas (cotton and cooler version of a kimono) and even paid for us to go to the hairdresser and have our hair put up – think me using sign language to say ‘make it bigger’ – never been so backcombed in my life.

The actual parade was the highlight – as the foreigners we were placed near the front. Ahead of us were the BOE bigwigs who were there to drink rather than dance – an alternative option freely available to all. Everytime we stopped a cooler full of sports drinks appeared along side a cooler full of beer and sake. To my surprise the 4 hour parade flew by – a tribute to the craic more than the alcohol cause I didn’t drink.