Powell Street Japanese Festival

The weather was excellent! Sunny with a little breeze but a parasol would’ve been nice, especially at the sumo tournament. It was my second time attending the festival. Last time I went was with my brother about 12 years ago (mind you, if my co-worker hadn’t mentioned it last week I wouldn’t have remembered this summer event). Back then, the powell festival was of a much smaller scale and held mainly at the school. Needless to say I was quite impressed with this year’s events and food selection.

Festive Food:
We had Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), korokke (potato croquette) nori mochi (seaweed rice cake), yakitori (grilled chicken) and ramunes (a special Japanese soft drink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramune)
Knowing the ingredients and all, I think they’re a bit over priced ($45 total). But I consider having a Japanese picnic under the tree with great friends priceless.

Shows:
Karate Kids – they were soooo cute!
Sumo – Highly entertaining. The crowd cheered very loudly when a presumably underdog managed to push a guy twice his size out of the rim. During the semi-finalist round a participant got his shoulders dislocated and an ambulance was called. We waited about 15 minutes and decided to leave as we needed to head back to Richmond.
Tea Ceremony – the guys blushed a bit when the Japanese girls in yukatas (summer kimono) served them tea and biscuits. That was entertaining as well. :D

Other shows I would like to attend next year:
Kyudo – Japanese archery.
Taiko – Japanese drum

Stalls:
Nothing spectacular really.
I was hoping they’d have the kingyo-sukui (goldfish scooping using paper nets).
There was a balloon game though – where you have to fish water balloons using a small hook hanging from a wooden stick. We watched a little guy try to get a pink one for his sister. It was cute! Reminded me of my brother when we were little. :)

It was overall a good festival – but the shows were too spread out throughout the day. So if your interests are Kyudo and Sumo, you would have to wait for hours before attending the next show.


N.B: My left arm was tanned – the sun has moved to our left when the sumo wrestling started. I was standing and I had my left arm holding a piece of paper trying to block the sun.
When I got home I realized my arms are of different shades. XD