This weekend, the Koenji Awa Odori Festival and its parade of dance troupes finally took to the streets again in Tokyo for the first time since 2019. The two-night annual event, rooted in an Obon tradition from Tokushima Prefecture, usually draws around a million visitors to Koenji, a district of Suginami Ward, located between Shinjuku and Mitaka on the Chuo-Sobu Line. However, it was canceled for three straight summers due to the pandemic.
The crowds came flocking back tonight to see women in amigasa hats and other dancers and musicians perform around the train station. One taiko drummer was pounding away so hard that I saw him break his stick, then grab a spare that he had tucked into his back belt, almost without missing a beat. That was just one moment in the three-hour parade, which begins at 5 p.m. and disperses promptly at 8 p.m., with a ten-second countdown each time. Pro tip: if you stake out a spot in the first standing row on the sidelines, people sitting in front will often leave before the parade is over, and then you can slide in and have the dancers looming right over you, as seen in this picture.