Yosakoi

A few weeks earlier there was this Japanese street parade thing along Beach Street and Esplanade, so I decided to go and have a look. I only knew of this event because it was advertised on the rear end of a Rapid Penang bus, and I only looked at the bus because it was sending foul-smelling clouds of carbon monoxide at me.

Back to the parade. The earlier part of the event at Esplanade turned out to be pretty much the same as the annual Bon Odori, complete with Yukatas, funky Japanese food, cosplayers and kids lining up to catch fish (some sort of game I guess).

Some Japanese traditional toys for show.

Nice kite. An old chap tried to fly it but the wind wasn't strong enough.

Kids 'n Kotton Kandy =P

The second part of the parade, being the parade itself, was more interesting (probably because I haven't seen parades close-up for a decade). Those joining the parade were gathered at Church Street Ghaut at about 8pm. It wasn't as crowded as I expected, so I pretty much had a good view of what was going on without being squashed into human pulp.

Balloons...

I like balloons!

Some of the jolly members of the parade.

Some came with drums...

...some came with horses...

... and some came straight out of the movie screen.

I think these guys were into Japanese fencing or something. Just found their costumes unique.

And of course the night ends with fireworks.

Honestly I felt it could have been better. The performers in the street parade were actually spaced too far away from each other. While folks at the beginning of the line enjoyed all the action, I noticed some Ang Mo tourists towards the end of Beach Street getting annoyed because the last time a performance group walked past them was 15 minutes ago. But I guess things weren't too shabby for a first try. Better luck next time.