Obon

Tokyo’s Nakano adds rock and disco to its annual summer bon dance【Videos】

The neighborhood that invented the Obon Jovi dance is back with a new set list of rock and disco hits.

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Why a Nagasaki graveyard is one of the best places in Japan to find a seat

When your feet are killing you, rest in peace at the cemetery!

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Japanese taxi company offers service to visit family graves for those who can’t travel themselves

Send a taxi driver to your family’s resting place, but it costs extra to leave flowers.

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Organizers angered as ceremonial giant kanji “fire” in Kyoto lit early and unofficially

Whoever did this made a “big” mistake.

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Flight that crashed in 1985 spotted landing in Narita Airport 35 years later

Fittingly right before Obon too.

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Kyoto’s annual giant mountain bonfire displays drastically reduced in 2020

Gozan no Okuribi organizers strike a balance between tradition and safety.

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Best descendent ever? Japanese man builds memorial Pokémon out of cucumber to honor ancestors

One day, if you’re lucky, maybe someone will remember you at Obon like this.

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Japanese senior citizen beats up adult son after he finds out he got tattoos

Skips spanking, instead goes with punching after body art discovery.

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Silent Bon odori dance?! Japan’s traditional summer festival gets a modern twist

The lively dance becomes a silent dance to appeal to younger audiences.

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Survey reveals the top reasons why married Japanese people don’t want to go home during Obon

Surprisingly “dealing with in-laws” isn’t the number one reason.

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Tokyo’s Nakano district doesn’t just have an Obon Dance, it has an Obon Jovi Dance!

The west Tokyo neighborhood’s take on the centuries-old event is like bad medicine, and bad medicine is what I need.

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“Once In Your Life In Osaka” is this year’s song of the summer 【Video】

If you love Osaka, you’ll love it even more after watching this music video.

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First-ever Bon-Odori dance festival to be held at Shibuya scramble crossing for Obon

Shibuya’s giant scramble crossing will be closed to traffic for a summer street festival.

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Hello Kitty dances the traditional Bon Odori dance on new Japanese summer kimono

People in Japan are commenting that they’ve never seen Hello Kitty’s limbs move like this before.

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Traditional Japanese holiday gets boost with an injection of cold hard cash

A lesser-known Yamagata Prefecture custom may just be what Obon needs to stave off invasive species of the holiday kingdom like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

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Bon dances have been a Japanese tradition for centuries, but one neighborhood’s stopped the music

At this time of year, if I’m walking around town in the evening, I’ll often hear rousing taiko drums and joyful traditional music. Believe it or not, this isn’t an impromptu concert put on by the revelers that always greet my arrival wherever I go, but the sound of a bon dance, (“bon odori” in Japanese).

Part of the summer Obon festivities, bon dances have been held for centuries, and have a spiritual significance in some localities. Even where they’re held for purely festive reasons, they’re a way of fostering a sense of community and preserving cultural heritage.

But while to most Japanese people the sound of bon odori music brings a welcome and warm rush of nostalgic summer memories, one neighborhood in Japan performs its dance with no music at all, and it’s not because all of the dancers have innately perfect rhythm.

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We now bring you Mad Max: Eggplant Road

Here they come again. Worming their way into the black matter of my brain. I told myself…they cannot touch me. They’re long dead…

That’s right folks! It’s Obon time again. This is when the spirits of our deceased ancestors are said to visit the realm of the living. And so Japanese people have several traditions to make that visit a comfortable one for their loved ones.

One such custom is the shoryo uma which traditionally are little horses made from cucumber or eggplant and designed to symbolically transport the dead across these planes of existence.

In recent years these horses have evolved into a variety of things from tanks to Gundam vehicles., but now it seems shoryo uma makers have been inspired by the hit movie Mad Max: Fury Road and created vehicles in its image to transport loved ones across that great apocalyptic divide.

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Five things you need to know about Obon–one of Japan’s biggest holidays 【Videos & more】

If the idea of your loved ones leaving this earth never to return again seems unfair, then you should consider the Japanese view of the afterlife. While nothing can change death itself, it is comforting to know that in Japan there is a special time of the year when the souls of the dead come back to visit the living. This is called Bon (or Obon using the honorific “o”) a holiday period from August 12-16 (exact dates may vary depending upon location), a time when the entire country takes a break to celebrate the “festival of the dead.” It’s a lively few days when the living and the dead can once again unite to eat together, drink together and share good times.

The Bon tradition gives the country some of the unique dances that Japan is so famous for. Tokushima’s Bon dance, called Awa Odori, for example, draws over one million tourists every year. Traditional Bon entertainment is so lively, colorful and intriguing that a Bon dance is a must-see on every traveler’s itinerary.

Today we’ll introduce you to a five things you should know about Obon. Needless to say, it’s a very exciting time to be in Japan as a tourist!

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It’s that time of year again; when people in Japan make eggplant tanks

For many parts of Japan, this week is the Obon season. This is the time when several generations of family members all come together in one house for a visit. Luckily for the hosts, the vast majority of these relatives are ghosts so don’t take up a lot of space.

But even though they’re ghosts it’d be rude not to lay out some food for them, and so it’s not uncommon to place some snacks or beverages on graves or family altars in the home. Among these you might find shoryo uma, little animals made of cucumber and eggplant meant symbolize animals which carry the spirits to and from the otherworld.

Traditionally these tiny animals are made by jabbing four sticks into the vegetable for legs. The result is quaint but kind of looks like something I’d slap together for my third grade art project so I could get back to playing Dragon Warrior – hardly something fit for the people who paved the way for your existence to ride in on! As such some people in Japan have begun pimping their shoryo uma to make sure their ancestors’ rides are safe, comfy, and in some cases kind of epic.

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The Great Obon Disaster: A fable of cicadas, dancing, and cats

Obon is a great time to be in Japan–the summer festivals fill the country with nights of folk music, stall food, and, of course, dancing. While the cops may not approve of you tearing it up in a club, surely no one could complain about the traditional circle dances of Obon.

But it turns out there’s a critic for everything!

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