Sky Lobby at Nagoya Marriott Tower
By Bonson Lam
The summer dance festival in Nagoya, “Domatsuri”, short for “Domannaka Matusi”, is Japan’s biggest dance festival, and it was registered in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2010. More than 200 teams and over 23,000 people participate in the festival, which is held in several places in Nagoya, at the end of August every year. Geographically, Nagoya is located in the exact center of Japan (Domannaka means “center”), and people all over Japan get together enjoying the original dances and variety of costumes. The festival, which began in 1999, has two rules: Dancers must use “Naruko” (castanets-like noise makers for driving birds away), and Japanese folk songs should be used in their dance.
