Last Day in Okayama

Our last full day in Okayama. What a fun day it was.

We began with rehearsals for our final performance. Rehearsals were in an Okayama city building that was built to provide space for workshops and activities. There are no offices just rooms for activities. We practiced in the ping pong practice room. Acoustics were great. Choir sounded great. Now they were warmed up and ready to go.

Lunch was in the in either of two shopping areas. After lunch we went across the street to the Santa Hall. We were the first of several performances. So we had to be on time and time was limited to twenty minutes. There was a bit of a panic when we were ten minutes to curtain and our choir was on the seventh floor of the building. Everybody came down ok and the performance went off without a hitch. Choir did great.

After the performance, we changed and got ready for Uraja. Still not sure what uraja is but it was fun. We were one of several teams of dancers. Many of the teams are from schools or groups or friends who get together. They have costumes and face paintings. Every one in our group had our face painted by the team that taught us how to uraja and lead us through an arcade of Okayama. Its was a lot of fun.

The arcade is lined with crowds of people. Each team of dancers follows a truck blaring the music and singing. As the music begins the team follows the truck the drives through the arcade. Our team was announced as visitors from San Jose, California. With 72 members in our group we were one of the largest. We were told that today was not the main festival and that tomorrow would be larger.

Great fun!!