Harvest Festival
I am in Santa Cruz, Bolivia,
at the Okinawa settlement.
On Saturday, August 9th,
the Harvest Festival (Buena cosecha) was held.
What is the Okinawa settlement?
After the war, Okinawa Prefecture
faced problems of overpopulation and land shortages.
It is a region developed by people who emigrated from Okinawa Prefecture to Bolivia at that time, under a policy devised by the Ryukyu government to resolve those issues through emigration.
Currently,
both Japanese-Bolivians and Bolivians live in the Okinawa settlement.
There are about 800 Japanese-Bolivians currently in Okinawa,
and it seemed that about 90% of the population within Okinawa are Bolivians.
The Harvest Festival is a festival held every August
at the Okinawa settlement 🇯🇵
(Harvest Festival... a festival to pray for a bountiful harvest)
The Harvest Festival
seemed to be such a popular event that tour buses come and organized tours are arranged!
Miss and Mr. Okinawa are selected.
Mr. Okinawa candidates were mostly in swimming trunks.
and it was still going strong even after that!
I was allowed to help the Japanese women's association.
On this day, items like sushi and Okinawa soba are sold.
This is a Bon dance by women from the San Juan settlement 🇯🇵
There are also sanshin performances and student marching bands.
Finally, the Eisa festival drums!
It was powerful and very cool.
Volunteer members were also dancing.
The finale was kachashi followed by a barrage of fireworks 🎇
In the park where this event was held,
a variety of food stalls from both Bolivia and Japan were lined up 🥡
At the Bolivian stalls, I ate strawberry candy, ramen, and anticucho (breaded beef skewers),
and at the Japanese-Bolivian stalls, I ate Okinawa soba and hand-rolled sushi.
They filled the container to the brim, lol
I even rode the Ferris wheel that spins at high speed for many laps (and it was manual, too) (it never seemed to end)! It was scary but fun
For someone like me with a fixed term of office,
this was my first and last Harvest Festival 🎆
The national anthems sung at the beginning were
the Bolivian national anthem and Kimigayo
Both the Bolivian and Japanese flags were hoisted 🇧🇴🇯🇵 How wonderful!
Honestly, I never imagined
that so many people would gather in Okinawa
Since all the performers
practiced their dancing and musical instrument performances a lot before the actual show,
seeing them showcase the results of that
moved me 🥹
I made such wonderful memories
that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I'm so happy ☺️
Thank you very much