IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--High school hula dancers from all over Japan competed here Aug. 25 to encourage those still trying to recover from the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.
IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture--High school hula dancers from all over Japan competed here Aug. 25 to encourage those still trying to recover from the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.
“We danced very expressively with hopes of being of some help for victims recovering from the disaster,” said Wakana Matsushita, 16, a second-year student at Nobeoka Gakuen High School in Miyazaki Prefecture.
The third Hula Girls Koshien competition took place in the hometown of the famed Hula Girls dance troupe, who dance at the Spa Resort Hawaiians, the city’s major leisure facility.
A record 160 students, from 23 high schools in Tokyo and nine other prefectures, showed off their hula and Tahitian dance skills during the competition.
Tokiwagi Gakuen High School in Sendai won the prize for best performance for the second year in a row.
The top five schools in the competition were to give a dance exhibition at the Spa Resort Hawaiians on Aug. 26.
Some of the participating schools arrived in Fukushima Prefecture days before the competition so that they could visit people forced to evacuate to Iwaki from their hometowns by the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The students visited temporary housing and entertained the evacuees with dances.