Having holidays mean having spare time to do and to see something you have never seen before. Holiday is the perfect time to experience something new to widen your knowledge. If you have time, visit Japan. This country is well known for the beauty and the tradition it still has. Come to Japan in middle of August and witness the beauty of Awa Odori, the most famous dance festivals in Japan.

Visit Japan between August 12th and 15th and make sure you don’t miss this traditional dance festival. Between those dates, thousands of spectators and dancers come to Tokushima to see this dance festival. This dance s originally started 400 years ago. This festival take a day long, but even though some events happen during the daytime, the main attraction is just happen between 18:00 and 22:00. At this time, groups of dancers called “ren” perform in blocked off streets.

Witnessing this festival, you not only get the dance performance. You can also witness the festive of traditional music played during the festival. These traditional musical instruments will surely give you experience you never had before. The dancers also dressed up in festive clothes. The “ren” distinguish themselves with variation and colorful uniforms. Women wear traditional cotton robes called yukata while the men wearing happi a shorter form of yukatta combined with shorts or pants.

This festival is held along the road. The dancer will march in colorful uniform and with traditional music and dancing traditional movements. This dancing is literally means “Fool’s Dance”. This name come from the lyric sang that goes with the dancing. The lyric translates as follows: “Fools dance and fools watch, if both are fools, you might as well dance”.

If you planning to see this festival, I suggest you to book tickets first. It may also difficult to find hotels to stay just before the festival. If you don’t get the hotel near you can stay elsewhere and find some bus or train to get there. If you happen to miss the festival, you can also visit the museum. There is a museum in the Awa Odori Kaikan that keep things related to this dancing festival. There is also a dance hall where dance demonstrations are held several times a day.