Oiran parade and Susukino Festival 2015

Back in August there was the yearly Susukino Festival. They close off the streets in the entertainment district from 18 to 22 during three days, and instead of having lots of taxis blocking the streets you have lots of tables serving not very good food and cheap drinks. Our magic bar had a stand together with a yakitori place that has very good food.

You run into lots of friends in the Susukino festival

The first day of the Susukino festival has an "Oiran parade". Two girls (usually from the hostess clubs in Susukino) have to practice how to walk around dressed like an oiran. This involves wearing many layers of kimono and carrying a very long kimono belt that weights several kilos. There are also lots of other people in the parade, since an oiran would not walk around alone, I guess.

The oiran in orange

Oiran in purple

Oiran wear very high geta (Japanese clogs) that are very difficult to walk in. They also have to walk in a certain complicated style.

This year it only rained on day out of three, so financially I guess the Susukino festival this year was more successful than usual (it usually rains like crazy for at least two days). We had a pretty good spot, but a very small area.

It rained a little the first day, but some people still stayed.

I usually show up in yukata for Japanese festivals (you have to use every opportunity to wear a yukata, since there are so few of them). This makes doing any actual work hard, though. It is also a pain doing magic wearing a yukata. But doing magic at the Susukino festival sucks anyway, so I figured why not?

Some reasons for disliking doing magic at the Susukino festival includes rain (ruins anything made of paper, like a deck of cards), strong winds (blows away cards, sponges, threads, paper money, anything light), no space to stand (very very crowded), people being completely unfocused (people they know pass nearby and start talking to their friends all the time), and much more. People are usually very happy and enjoy the magic, though.

Students from my university dancing in the street

There are other entertainments during the festival too. There is a yosakoi (team dancing) competition, and the team from my university was there of course. There are also karaoke competitions and musical performances. There are mobile temples being carried around too.

This kid wanted to see "one more magic trick" for 5 hours, haha.

Doing magic to the son of a friend who went to the trick art museum with me in Tokyo.

New yukata on day two

Two people I kind of know

In Susukino, you meet a lot of people that you know when everyone is drinking in the street. Normally everyone is hidden away in the hundreds of small bars here. I walked past a table where two guys who are so into fishing that they looked up information on the Internet and then found their way to a bar I often go to just because a "famous fishing expert" they follow on Facebook mentioned he was there drinking. They recognized me from the one time we met in the bar, and bought me drinks and food in the festival. They were drinking with one of the transvestite dancers from LaLaToo, our famous transvestite show club.

Tourists from Taiwan (?) with a selfie stick

My blond friend and his colleagues passed by

Mobile temples carried by thirty people trying to pass through the crowds.

The people I buy my cameras from stopped by our place, and then continued on to our bar!

I spent a ridiculous amount of time barfing cards out of my mouth to try to get passersby interested in our little stand

Yet another yukata on day three

Giving up in the Oiran parade

Oiran after taking off the shoes

At the Susukino festival there is always an "Oiran parade", where two women dressed as oiran (to Westerners: "geisha") walk down the street. The have kimono belts that way 20 kg or so, and they have shoes that are 40 cm high or so. They also have to walk in a very difficult way, and they have huge entourages of servants.

Oiran with very heavy belt

Oiran in the rain

This year, it was raining very heavily. In fact, it rained so heavily that the oiran gave up, took off their shoes and walked normally.

Parts of the oiran entourage

Oiran and servants

Oiran

Yesterday our Susukino festival started here in Sapporo. Last year our magic bar participated and had a barbecue stand. It was way too much work, so everyone agreed that "never again!"...

The guy in white, portraying the "husband" was apparently a famous actor (though I know barely any Japanese famous people by sight).

This year I changed into a yukata and walked over to take a look at the other stalls in the streets, and see some of the events going on. I arrived just in time for the "oiran parade". Oiran (花魁) were Japanese high level courtesans. The oiran parade of the festival were two women selected because of their beauty and walking abilities in oiran clothes, if I understood the announces correctly. There were also people portraying "the husband", helper girls, and other roles.

Ladies in waiting, or something like that

The clothes seemed fairly inconvenient. Really high wooden clogs, very many layered kimono, and an enormous kimono belt. The walking style was also very peculiar, with large sweeping leg motions. The procession progressed very very slowly.

Very high clogs, very many layers of kimono, and a huge belt

Lots of people were gather to watch and take photos, so it was difficult to get good pictures.

After they had passed me, I went around looking at the food stalls. One place served Turkish shishkebab, so I sat down there. It turned out to be in the same group of restaurants as an Italian place I often go, so they recognized me there.

Shishkebab

Pork tongue

I also kept running into customers from our magic bar. Some of them told me that our boss in the magic bar was also drinking at some other place, though it took me over an hour before I found him (since he also kept moving around).

One more oiran