Japanese dance with a parasol during the Spring Festival
Matsuri dance at the Spring Festival
Wearing my Yukata at the Spring Festival
Taiko Drums at the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival in the Japanese Gardens in Forth Worth Texas. April 28th, 2012. Beautiful, really hot, day. Enjoyed various fun activities, I went fishing for a balloon, painted a fish, played in a lottery that i lost at. Good fun, we had onigiri and tea for lunch and delicious cookie flute desert.
If you haven't been to a Japanese Festival, I highly recommend it, there is so much culture in Japan that is great to enjoy! Especially if you can go to a Japanese Garden they are very nice, with koi fish and zen gardens very nice.
Texas A&M University - Commerce has a new addition to awesome events! Leo Con 2012 at the Hall of Languages today! Aprl 14th 2012.
Come out and enjoy a whole day of sci-fi stuff, anime, cosplay, larping, art, and much more!!!!
Ok so very popular in Japan are anime dances. Mixed with a lot of enthusiasm and using usually a variety of hand motions, sometimes repetitive, sometimes not. I call it a mix of pop and ParaPara, ParaPara veing a form of dancing that uses many hand motions to the beat of eurobeat, popularized by the video game ParaPara Paradise.
Anyway dancing has always been very popular in Japan especially in anime. Here are a few anime dances that are very popular in Japan and even in the states among anime fans.
Hare Hare Yukai from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is mostly popular as a group dance as shown here 3 to 5 people are best at doing this one seeing as in how each person has a couple of varying moves. You can often find people doing this dance at anime conventions in the United States. This song can be found at the end of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episodes.
This one is called Motteke! Sailor Fuku, from Lucky Star. This one is also popular in a large group seeing as in how the girls here are performing as cheerleaders in a squad. This song and dance is performed at the opening sequence of the show, but this particular scene is from one of the final episodes where they perform on stage. This dance is also popular at anime conventions in the States.
This funky dance is Ultra Relax from Kodomo no Omocha also known as Kodocha in the United States. Its funky and fun, usually done in a group of around four people. You can find this song on this opening sequence of the series. Since this is an older series from 1995 originally, it is not as popular as Hare Hare Yukai or Motteke! Sailor Fuku but it can still be around here and there occasionally at anime conventions.
And last but not least, Caramelldansen. This is actually a Swedish song that somehow found itself being really popular in Japan and Japanese culture, including anime. This song is heard very frequently in the anime community with fans doing the little movements shown in the video. Swaying of the hips with their hands up on their head like ears. This is the easiest dance to do so when its played at conventions everyone usually lines up and starts rocking to the music.
There are your most popular dances in Japan and in the United States. Of course there are tons more dances and such, and even recently more that have been popularized by the Vocaloid franchise and Hatsune Miku. There are even people making up dances like these every day. So go out there and dance!
