Tokyo Koenji Awaodori Dance Festival is held annually on the last Saturday and Sunday of August.
About 188 groups(ren), 12,000 dancers perform Awa dance to lively music and parade through the nine routes set up along the shotengai(shopping promenades), located on both north and south side of JR Koenji Station, and Konan Street of the south. Koenji Awaodori is the second largest of all the Awaodori festivals held throughout Japan, following the one in Tokushima.
It also highlights the summer of Tokyo as one of the three largest summer festivals of the area, together with Sumida River Fireworks Festival and Asakusa Samba Carnival.
-For more information please visit here.
I arrive at Kouenji Station and hear a loud ruckus. I had about 2 hours to kill so I decided to find out what it was and found this!
Learning from my experience from Minato Mirai and the Fireworks festival, I decided to get some food and drinks early and stake out a seat really early in the streets so I would get a decent spot. I staked my spot which was okay (all the good spots were already taken!) and I couldn't leave. Note to self: There is a reason why people go in groups in this situation.
And then the festival begins!
