My perspective on the 31st Bon Odori
NANI? WHAT IS SILVER SURFER DOING HERE?!Before I start, some background info first: Bon Odori is actually a dance to honour the departed spirits of ancestor. It's actually a Japanese Buddhist event. For more information, please read this article on Wikipedia.
On the 14th of July, Jennings, Warna, Limys, I'm-not-grumpy, penunu Bensen, and I joined MMU's
When I arrived at the complex, we were about an hour early. So there was nothing much to do besides camwhoring.
全家福At about 5 p.m., we were let in and were given a
The FAN-tastic Four!!??
There wasn't much to do at that moment. We did see a few people rehearsing for their performance on the stage. It was pretty interesting... for a few minutes. So we visited the food department. There were a lot of Japanese delicacies on sale, like Japanese ice cream, sushi, dorayaki, onigiri, Terrymari, and other food ending with the alphabet "i". Despite the exorbitant prices, people rushed to purchase the food as if there was a famine.
Me wants Japanese food yay yay~
Reminded me of a guy named Takayuki
The self-proclaimed king of sushi also made an appearance here!
Japan got ais kacang meh? Nan-de-Yo!?
Special: Keropok, made from Japanese fish
Whale meat burger!!!
No la, no whale meat burger. Sorry to disappoint you guys. But shinpai nai, no whales mah, but got chicks le. We saw a pretty gorgeous Japanese girl promoting ja-pan. (What is ja-pan? Japanese bread lor, noob!)
Now you know why Silver Surfer is on the top of the post. To the right is a random superhero
After we bought some food, we sat down on the grass to eat and chat. Besides Malaysians, there were a lot of Japanese there too. Finally we got to show off the Japanese we learned from animes, like arigato, sumimasen, Mitsubishi, yamamoto, kusogaki,
Japanese little girls having fun
The little butterflies getting ready to perform on stage.
Discovered Japanese Zhou Xun!
We didn't have to wait for long. After 2 hours, the 1st part of the dance finally started. The beautiful dressed dancers moved like butterflies, graceful and effortless. The drummers hit their drum with all their might, as if the drum was their enemy. The music played was pretty catchy too. It was a sight to behold. Like corpses suddenly rising up to be zombies, the crowd suddenly started imitating the dancers movement. Seemingly entranced, they danced with such zeal and religious fervency that is rarely seen in Malaysians.
mi ni koi sakura ah e oh come and dance with me
Their imitation was so lame this obaachan had to teach them the steps
They were so engrossed in the exotic dance that they didn't care about the air pollution that's destroying our world.
After the dance, we chatted and bought more food to eat. In the meanwhile, there was another cultural dance going on in another part of the complex. The crowd rushed there like there was some kind of megasale. By the time I arrived, all I could see was cameras, vidcams, and cellphones (noob sia) held high. So I sacrificed myself to let my camera watch the performance instead.
Later, while I was busy taking pictures
We were a bit excited because there was going to be a special guest that day. Amidst wild guesses ranging from Ayumi Hamasaki, Utada Hikaru to BoA(??), the special guest turned out to be an
The third part commenced after his speech, which, to no big surprise, was a repetition to the first part. My friends, who danced twice, was too tired to join in the fun again. So we bought more food and talked more crap. It was really exciting, I tell you
I bought an okonomi yaki and Beard Papa cream puffs. They were as delicious as they were expensive. Talking about the cream puffs, I noticed a weird thing: it's sold for RM10 for 3 pieces, but RM18 for 5 (if you don't see what I mean, use a calculator). I bet they tricked a lot of people using this dirty tactic. I only got away because I thought 5 were too many - I only realized the sketchy pricing after I bought them.
Anyway, Jenning's friend pointed to me something that really stood out.
O-kayyy, that's definitely not Japanese clothing
And I dedicate this to Limys and I'm-not-grumpy...
And I dedicate this to myself...
The event ended at 9.30 p.m. and we finally left at 10.00 p.m. which was a long waiting time. When we finally got back to Cyberjaya, something happened, throwing us all into disarray and dismay.[END]
- Credits to myself and Jennings for the photographs
BONUS:
A very cool picture of the drummers taken by Joshua Teoh
Please check out his site for more professional looking pictures of Bon Odori 2007
If you're lusting for pictures of MM at B.O. 2007, you might as well check out this gallery at Jack Tan's blog.<--<< Go back