Since I wasn't home all weekend I didn't get a chance to shop for food so I ended up making a salad for today. It's just as well since I ate a whole lot of cookies and bad foods over the weekend. (we went to Mrs. Barry's Cookies) I did discover that I sure stock a whole lot of salad foods in my fridge.
On the bottom where you can't see I have finely chopped romaine lettuce, celery, and edamame. On top I have cucumber slices, radish slices, sakura shaped ham, shrimp, avocado, grape tomatoes, and sakura carrots. This is a pretty big bento box so it's a nicely sized salad and with the 3 fruits (1 plum, 1 nectarine, 1 banana) I brought along with a bag of Smart Pop popcorn, that should be more than enough to tide me over for today. All Core salad, so I'm on the right track for this week!
The bon dance we went to was at this temple called Kona Koyasan Daishinji Mission (in Holualoa, up on the mountain, basically) and it was a nice, cute bon dance. We got there when they were taking a break for dinner, which oddly appeared to be free for all attendees. Mr. Pikko says he saw some lamers leaving with plates of food. We had just eaten so we didn't take anything. Their towels were free though, so I took two of those as I like to sort of collect those. They had a small yagura tower and the drummers were at the foot of it rather than inside it. They played some great songs and the drummers usually beat to each one, making them all pretty entertaining.
I took video of a lot of it and it was a good thing too because I was able to capture on camera one of the most hilarious and hip dances I've ever seen. They had a man announcing each song and he goes, "Next up we have "Yeaaaah!" and I thought eh? Then they start up "Yeah!" by Usher and all the old ladies in kimonos are dancing to Usher and saying, "Yeah!" Once I find my Adobe Premiere cd I am so putting that up for people to see. It was their favorite song, they played it three times!
Their last song was Fukushima Ondo and sadly, there was no one there to play the flute for it. Still, I got in and danced (once again carrying Baby Girl). There was a small group of kids there that were trying to get a "betcho" started, but didn't do so well since there weren't too many people. It died out right after the first "Betcho, betcho, betcho! Yo, yo, yokoisho!". Still, I was still happy to hear them trying! My dad says he saw a special on tv about the betcho and I was kinda bummed I missed it. Hopefully I can figure out who made it and find it online somewhere.
3 comments:
Usher + Baba-Sans dancing = a I wish I was there moment. Too cute.
Aloha,
Thank you for the video clip of Kawachi Otoko Bushi (stick) dance. Looking forward to the Yeah dance.
I was told that Rev. Dean from the main temple choreographed this dance in honor of the passing of too many young parishioners in his parish over the past year. Rev. Dean and some of the members of his temple on School St. on Oahu came over to attend the Bon Service and dance and graciously taught us this new dance. Needless to say it was a big hit with the younger parishioners here. We did Yeah 5 times that night. Can't wait to see your video clip.
As you know, the Buddhist believe that the deceased come back to this earth plane during Obon. We dance to honor them, celebrate their return and to dance with them. Kudos to Rev. Dean to create the dance for the young ones who passed and came back to dance with us.
You will find most of the smaller churches on the Big Island still honor the old tradition of feeding the people who attend the service and dance (free). Some of the larger churches have food booths and their YBA or Taiko group sell food as a fundraiser.
Altho the towels are given out free, it is customary to make a small donation at the Choba when you pick up your towel. The cost of the towel (fabric & printing) cost the church about $2 each. So a small donation is customary.
Again, thank you for the video.
Mahalo for your wonderful comment!! I did donate to the church as my two kids were there with me and they love to toss coins into the box to hear them clink around. It was a very nice bon dance and I really enjoyed watching it. I am a big fan of the drums and most dances I go to don't play the drums for most of the songs like how your group was. I'm glad we went!!
So this was a new dance learned just this year? It was really cool to see!!
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