They Are What??????

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of seeing one of the 35 or 36 annual parades that celebrated the relationship between Japan and Hawaii.  There is a very tight cultural tie between the two places through dance, music, language etc. When I grew up in Hawaii, I had friends who went off to Japanese language school after finishing their regular day of school or on Saturdays.  It was expected. 

This parade had some wonderful entries that you do not see in normal parades. I saw groups with dragons (unfortunately, I messed those pictures up due to learning how to use the close up part of the camera. I got some really great fuzzy close ups).  So I did manage to take this great picture of a group of Japanese women marching down the street.  The lady to the farthest left in the picture has a horse head on her chest.  

The groups I loved watching most, were the hula groups that danced down the street.  Most groups were proceeded by pickup truck with a sound system on the back end that provided music to the dancers.  All the hula groups, danced down the street in time, almost like those military groups who never miss a step.

There was one hula group with two ukulele players who provided live music as they made their way down the parade route.  It was cool.  This added a nice element to the parade.

And sprinkled through the parade, were the trolly cars that carried people down the parade route.  These were people from various Japanese Prefectures and the trolly's are ones that regularly run through Waikiki serving the Japanese Tourists.

Hawaii is the only place I know that has parades with Hula dancers, dragons, Korean musicians, Japanese women in Kimono's, a couple of bands and drums.  I wish I'd been able to see the whole parade but I was leaving that night.