Sunday, April 3, 2011

Miyako-Odori(Traditional Spring Dance Festival in Gion,Kyoto)

"Miyako-Odori" is traditional Spring Dance Festival,
 in the heart of Kyoto’s historic entertainment district, Gion.
This traditional Maiko Dance Festival is held April 1- April 30.
There are four performance daily-(12:30,14:00,15:30,16:50).
The Dance performance is held at this theater in Gion.
A lot of people visit here today.The weather is very good.

This orange light pole shows sponsor's name of this show.
The promoter of this show said,
"Honestly,we hesitated to hold the event this year,
we thought we should exercise self-restraint,
but we want to cheer up many people,
we want to cheer up Japan now,
and we want to donate the profits to stricken area,
so we decided to hold the event this year."

At the entrance,Maiko and staff women are appealing us
 to contribute to donation for Tohoku people,
wishing early restoration of stricken area.
Japanese Red Cross
http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html

We have still other 30 minutes before the show starts,
so during the time,Maiko entertain us with green tea and sweets. 
She makes teas for us.
And left blue maiko brings us teas.
These are green tea and sweets.
We can bring this dish back home as souvenir.
Now she is taking a break.
This is like Japanese traditional painting...

These are theater where the performance is held.
Once the show starts,taking photos is forbidden.
So I can't tell how wonderful the show was...
It was so good!
You can see this Dance show until April 30,
This show is really worth seeing!
Please check this website.

This poster tells us about another Dance Festival in Gion.
This Festival is "Kyo-Odori".
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~miyagawacho/kyo-odori.html
Please check this website.
These kind of Maiko Dance Festivals are held everywhere in Kyoto in April.

This poster tell us about Night light-up of Kodaiji-Temple.
Everyone can enjoy cherry blossoms in the night.
Kodaiji-Temple is very famous,it is one of popular spot in Kyoto.
Please check this website.

April is good season to visit Kyoto.Cherry blossms are in their full,
and a lot of interesting events are held everywhere.