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Samba
carnival in Tokyo
Carnival
dresses, girls, and a lot of fun
If
you are in Tokyo at the peak of summer and feel like feeling
even hotter, one activity that can help you in your efforts,
is to visit the Asakusa Samba Carnival. A festival,
that is held in the most unlikely place in Tokyo, is
something that would expose you to that side of Japan that
embraces traits of foreign cultures, as long as they are fun
and can merge into the Japanese framework. This is true
with regards to hamburgers, pizza,
mini-skirts, English
words, and Louis Vuitton bags, and it is equally true for
the manner in which Christmas is celebrated in Japan and how
crazy Japan gets about the Samba Carnival.
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Unlike
the carnivals in Brazil or Caribbean countries or even in New
Orleans, the show in Tokyo is a more sedate affair. The
crowds, as you would expect in Japan, are far more
disciplined. While the streets are packed since morning
mostly with young people and even families, people are there
to take pictures of beautiful women and men and their exotic
dresses.
The day the
MYNIPPON team visited, it was a bright day and that made it
extremely hot. Interestingly, a vast majority of the
Japanese crowd was dressed as always in formal, decent summer
dresses. |
 In
other parts of the world such carnivals tend to have fairly
wild atmosphere. Have you ever looked at the wild crowds
in Brazil or New Orleans? This is not something we
witnessed in Tokyo. In addition to that, the dancers
themselves are dressed more conservatively. While the
dresses for women are still mostly designed as bra
tops, t-backs, g-strings, or the tiniest of skirts, no dancers would
be topless as is common in samba carnivals elsewhere.
Another
unique feature of this festival in Japan is that while foreigners are generally treated as outsiders and not allowed
to participate in mainstream culture, in this festival they
are admired. While a large number of dancers are
Japanese and you will see some of the most beautiful Japanese
dancers with great
bodies, the samba groups from Brazil and
other Caribbean countries feature some of their best dancers.
Interestingly, there are groups from other countries as well.
Of course, Brazil has a large Japanese presence and most of
the samba schools in Japan are either operated by Brazilians
or have teachers trained in Brazil. It is an extremely
interesting experience to see this show of feminine beauty in
Japan without feeling unsafe or being exposed to any vulgar
behavior.
It
appears that different types of western dances are becoming
popular in Japan and some of the Latin dances like flamenco,
samba, and salsa have caught on. The reason that these
dances have become popularity is the rhythms that are so
critical to these Latin dances are something that Japanese
people can easily follow because of cultural reasons.
Recommended links: Popularity of flamenco
Japanese
festival in New York
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