Japanese Festivals in America

It seems that there are a number of Japanese festivals in America at various times of the year and in various cities around America.

I’d like to attend a Japanese festival in America and see how similar or different it is from a real Japanese festival!

Have you ever been to a Japanese festival in America (or another country)? How was it?

I found information online about a few Japanese festivals in different U.S. cities:

• Japan Fest, Atlanta (Georgia, USA)

  

  ２００９年９月１９日(土曜日)から９月２０日(日曜日)まで。 (Saturday, 19 September 2009 – Sunday. 20 September).

  All of the Japanese festivals in America that I found online have already finished this year…except this one.
  If you’re in Atlanta, Georgia USA this September 19 -20, you should consider checking out this festival.

  They have scheduled martial arts shows, 盆栽 (bonsai), 生花 (ikebana), アニメ (anime), Japanese food, etc.

• The Japan-America Society Of Houston (Texas, USA)

  

  This festival was held in Texas, USA on ２００９年４月２５日から４月２６日まで。 (2009 April 25-26).

  Do you go to it?

• National Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington D.C. (USA)

  

  This year’s festival in Washington D.C. was held on ２００９年３月２８日から４月１２日まで。 (2009 March 28 – April 12).

  Next year’s will be ２０１０年３月２７日から４月１１日まで。 (2010 March 27 – April 11).

  Did you go to this festival? Are you planning to go next year?

  I heard about this festival on the TV news here in Japan because Jero performed at it this year (I wrote a post about it last March. Click here to read it).

• Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia (USA)

  

  This year’s festival was on ２００９年４月５日。 (2009 April 5).

There are many international festivals in Tokyo…

But I never knew there were so many Japanese festivals in America before. When I lived in America, I never heard about any Japan festivals. Are they a fairly recent* occurence? (* by recent, I mean since 1990.)
Is it because there’s currently a “Japan boom” in America?
Have you been to a Japan festival?

This week’s tragic news…

Some terrible news from around the world this week…

A rash of shootings in America:
• On Friday, April 3, a man barricaded the back door of an immigrant center in Binghamton, NY, USA with his car, then went in through the front door and began shooting people.
  He killed thirteen people before killing himself.

• On Saturday, April 4, a father in Graham, Washington, USA shot his five children (ages 7 – 16) to death and then killed himself.
• Also on Saturday, April 4, police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA responded to a call about domestic violence. When they arrived at the house, a 23-year-old man wearing a bullet-proof vest shot the three responding officers.
  SWAT officers arrived soon after but were unable to help the shot officers for hours because the man in the house held them at bay with gunfire.
  By the time the three officers who were shot were retrieved by the SWAT team, they had bled to death.

And possibly due to global warming:
• A large ice bridge in the Antarctic Ocean has collapsed.
  Scientists say it was holding a huge ice shelf in place and now that it’s fallen, the ice shelf (which is the size of Jamaica) will begin to float away which may cause it to melt and raise the sea level.

• Not totally unexpected, but North Korea launched the missile* that it had been getting ready.
  (*North Korea claims that it isn’t a missile…but a satellite.)
  It flew over Japan. Part of it landed in 日本海 (the Sea Of Japan) and the main part of the missile flew over Japan and landed in 太平洋 (the Pacific Ocean).
  If any part of the missile entered Japan’s land, air, or sea borders, Japan was prepared to shoot it down.
  Here is a YouTube video of CNN‘s coverage of the launch and Japan’s reaction:

Japanese ‘Get Well’ wishes to America

A nineteen-year-old young American man named Christian Schmidt who lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA was recently diagnosed with a severe form of cancer.

He has been receiving extensive, painful chemotherapy treatments nearly everyday for hours at a time. Due to the treatments, he has lost all of his hair…so his mother made a local request of her neighbors for donations of hats for her son Christian.

It must have been a surprise to her when she received hats from all over America. But I bet it was a real surprise for her to receive one from Japan!

Christian Schmidt’s hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama has a sister city of 千葉県、習志野市 (Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, Japan), and the mayor of 千葉県、習志野市 (Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) found out about Christian Schmidt’s situation and decided to send him a hat from the Narashino High School baseball team (who are set to play in Japan’s National High School Baseball Championship Tournament for the first time in over three decades).

Along with the hat, 千葉県、習志野市 (Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) sent Christian 千羽鶴 (1000 Origami Cranes)…which is a Japanese traditional “Get Well” wish.

出前

In your country, what types of food can you have delivered?

Is it good? Is it expensive?

As far as I remember, in America only pizza and maybe Chinese food is available for delivery.

Isn’t that right?

In Japan, you can have 寿司 (Sushi), カレー (Curried rice), ラメーン (Ramen), お弁当 (Japanese box lunches), 酒 (alcohol), ピザ (pizza), “Kentucky Fried Chicken“, and more delivered to your home.

All of it is quite good and most is quite affordable.

梅酒 (Plum wine) can be delivered to your home (as well as beer, sake, wine, etc)

寿司 (Sushi) is usually about ¥100 (US $0.90) a piece.

カツカレー (Pork cutlet & curry rice)

When you order 出前 (delivery) Sushi, Ramen, Curried rice and other foods like that, it usually comes served on ceramic dishes. When you finish the meal, you wash the dishes and put them outside your front door…and the delivery man comes back the next day to pick up the dishes.

Would such a system work in your country?

One thing that is expensive in Japan is ピザ (pizza), though.

I think the pizza menu is much better in Japan than in America…but many foreigners are surprised by pizza toppings that are popular in Japan, such as Japanese mayonnaise, corn, and potatoes.

Do such pizza toppings seem shocking to you? They’re actually quite good.

Japan has American pizza chains “Dominos” and “Pizza Hut“, as well as domestic chains like “Pizza-La” and “Wheely“.

Because the differences in toppings, pizza restaurants in Japan (even the American one) serve better side menus, desserts and drink choices than in America. (Most Japanese people could never eat just pizza for dinner. They want a salad and maybe some other side dish, as well.)

Another difference is the price. We almost never order a pizza…as I mentioned above, Japanese food is much more affordable in Japan than pizza.

For example, I checked prices on both the U.S. “Dominos“ and Japanese “Dominos“ websites.

In America, a large “Honolulu Hawaiian” pizza with a coupon costs US$13 (¥1198*)…but a comparable pizza at Dominos in Japan is called the 「トロピカル」 (“Tropical“) and costs ¥3100 (US $33.65*) for a large pie.

*(US dollar amounts are based on the ¥→US$ exchange rate on February 8, 2009. The US dollar is currently very weak.)

U.S. "Dominos" menu

At "Dominos Japan", you can get a "Quattro" pizza and a salad or potatoes for about US$25.

Kids' "Pikachu set" at "Dominos Japan"

"Mayo, Tuna, Corn Pizza" is actually quite good!

Baked potato is a side-dish at Dominos Japan.

Shrimp and potatoes is another side-menu here.

Dominos Japan's drink choices: Coke, orange juice, 御茶 (Green Tea), 紅茶 (Brown Tea)

U.S. Election

As everyone around the world knows, the 2008 U.S. Presidental election is over and Barack Obama will take office as the President of the United States in January 2009.

Just as many world leaders did, the Prime Minister of Japan offered his congratulations to Obama:

I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Senator Obama on his election as president of the United States of America.

Working together with President-elect Obama, I will strive to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance and to resolve various challenges the international community faces when addressing issues such as the international economy, terrorism and the environment…

内閣総理大臣麻生太郎 (Tarou Asou, Prime Minister of Japan)

++++

Also, as I said in this post, the Japanese city of 小浜 (Obama) has supported Barack Obama ever since he became a candidate for the U.S. presidency. They sent him gifts (and they received a reply letter from his office with a couple words written in 日本語 (Japanese)).

The city of Obama has “Obama hula dancers” and souvenirs with Barack Obama’s image on them.

They’re considering making Barack Obama an honorary citizen of the town.

Of course, the reason for all of this is because Obama is a small town in western Japan that was losing money and the town’s mayor saw an opportunity to attract tourists…and it’s working. Suddenly the town is getting many visitors…some of them from overseas.

The tourism campaign is called “Obama For Obama“.

The mayor anticipates the town of Obama will become a world-famous vacation destination now that Barack Obama won the election.

The “Obama Hula Dancers” hope to perform at Barack Obama’s inauguration in January, by the way.

ペリー

Yesterday I went to the 江戸東京博物館 (Edo-Tokyo Museum) to see the マシュー・ペリー (Matthew C. Perry) exhibit.

Matthew C. Perry was a Commander in the U.S. Navy in the early 1800’s.

At that time, Japan was closed to foreign countries, and Perry was sent here by the American president to negotiate with Japan to signing a trade agreement with the United States.

The fact that Perry had a fleet of black, intimidating war-ships just off the coast of Japan played a big part in convincing Japan to open to the West.

The museum had, among many other interesting things, some 浮世絵 (Woodblock prints) that Japanese artists painted of Perry.

This was the first time any of them had seen foreigners or heard them speak. So the pictures that they painted of Perry had exaggerated features, such as huge noses and wildly curly hair.

And a couple of them had Perry’s name spelled (in Japanese) incorrectly. They wrote: ペルリ (Peruri) and ペロリ (Perori), instead of ペリー (Perry).

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By the way, I’m currently in the process of redesigning My Website ( http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~tokyo5 )…it’s gonna look nicer, I think.

I’ll let you know when it’s done.