Most famous for its tourist-trapping Kannon Temple, Asakusa - one of the most traditional districts of Tokyo - is also famous for, believe it or not, its annual samba carnival (carnaval in Portuguese). Though, scale-wise, it pales in comparision to its Brazilian counterpart, the Asakusa Samba Carnival is nonetheless unique as a cross cultural study. Japanese women, trading the kimono for revealing carnival costumes and Japnese drummers beating on Brazilian surdo drums instead of the Japanese taiko. Many foreigners ( Brazilians and non-Brazilians alike) living in Japan also take part in the festivities. For many participants, it is one late August afternoon well spent in producing sweat and reducing stress.
For those who are not familar with the samba carnival (see my brief overview of Samba), a samba carnival is a contest where competing groups - better known as samba schools (or escola de samba in Portuguese) - compete for the best carnaval performance. The criteria is based largely on four or five things: the theme of the escola de samba, the dancing of its performers, the design and production of the costumes and floats, the percussion band and the overall spirit of the escola. Similar to its Brazilian counterpart, the Asakusa Samba Carnaval also features a multi-league system where the best teams compete in the 1st league.
The past couple years I have had the fortunate chance of participating in the samba carnaval with Cruzeiro Do Sul, one of the 1st league teams that places quite high every year. But rather than wearing an exotic costume, however, I decided to dance the parade route with my camera.
