By Ben Mirin, CIR
Happy Holidays from ConcordNanae.org!
The following video showcases one of the many performances at the center of Hakodate Christmas Fantasy, a holiday festival that draws crowds from around Hokkaido for a full month of public events and spectacles. The stage shown here is set in front of the city’s tremendous Christmas tree, which was transplanted from Hakodate’s Canadian sister city, Halifax.
After braving whipping winter winds to watch these performances, I would recommend that any visitor to Hakodate Christmas Fantasy head straight for the nearest Ramen shop. These restaurants will likely be less crowded than places like the Hakodate Beer Hall, where I chose to eat my meal. The food (and beer) was delicious, but if you’re not content waiting up to 1 hour for your table then roadside Ramen is the way to go (most places will have some form of indoor seating, whether in the shop or in a retrofitted truck trailer).
You can watch a complete video of the dance featured in this post on the ConcordNanae YouTube Page.
There is a lot more to learn about Christmas in Japan! For more information, I recommend reading this article from the blog of former CIR Bobby Kargula (2008-2010).
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The energy is amazing! Am I right that they’re singing in English? Certainly doesn’t sound
like a typical Christmas carol!
I know, right? I was shocked that more of them didn’t slip or fall off the stage in the snow storm.