Obon Festival - Camp Zama August 6, 2022

This weekend we attended an Obon Festival on Camp Zama. Obon is a traditional Buddhist custom where people honor the spirit of their ancestors. Traditional dances and and music are a huge part of the festival. These dances are know as Bon Odori.

Camp Zama opened up the base to anyone in the community who wanted to attend. The front gate was closed to cars and only foot traffic was allowed to enter that gate. We noticed people lining up (going down the sidewalk) just outside the base hours before the event started. 

The past two years (since we arrived at Camp Zama) the festival has been canceled due to Covid. So it was a really big deal that it was finally happening again. The main events were musical performances (Taiko drummers were my favorite!), tons of food vendors (both from groups on base and from Japan), booths selling Camp Zama souvenirs, one of the Army's Blackhawk helicopters, the Bon Odori dances, and fireworks!

It was amazing to see so many people on base - I think they estimated about 25,000 visitors came to the Festival. We felt lucky that we could attend just by walking over to the area where it was set up. We went right at the beginning, got some food before the lines were super long and then watched the Taiko drummers perform. After that we went back home to cool off and do some other things and then we went back in the evening to watch the dancing and see the fireworks. 

MWR built a big Bon Odori Tower where dance teams from different units (military units and units like dad's JED) would go up and perform one of the Bon Odori dances. Lots of people (men and women) wore Yukatas and people who were not on a team got in a huge circle and danced around the tower (similar to a line dance where everyone does the same moves). It was very hard to capture in a picture, but hopefully you get the idea.



 













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