Ten Photos of What Takes Place Before a Sabani Race from Zamami to Okinawa Island

A Well Organized Annual Event

 

 

There may be anywhere from 30-40 teams participating in the race.

Furuzamami Beach is the starting point and, the sabani boats are staged a day or two early.

Late afternoon and early evening, the night before the race, you can see teams practicing.

A boat might have two members on the team or, as many as six.

Before the sun sets, everybody beaches their boats.

And all hands, participate in a beach cleanup.

A couple of cameramen had this remote controller helicopter.

They could video the event from start to finish with that camera way up in the sky.

As the sun started dipping down behind the hills, everybody returned to Zamami Port.

Refreshments and festival foods were served.

Opening ceremonies took place with the usual speeches and such.

People just relax and enjoy themselves while waiting for showtime to begin.

Cute, little Hula dancers were anxious to perform on the stage.

And, there were some, more mature ones, involved in the show, too.

Nothing, sounds better than Eisa Dance being performed on a wooden stage.

All that foot stomping and drum beating, reverberated through the hills.

Once the sun sets, it gets quiet again and the sabani teams have to go get some sleep.

The next morning, they will sail and row those boats, all the way back to Naha, Okinawa !