Japan Festival

Photo from KCJAS website

   The annual Japan Festival is held from 10 am - 8 pm today at JCCC. As usual, they have a huge list of events: real sumo wrestlers, taiko drummers, both local and from a famous group in Denver, calligraphy workshops, bonsai displays, a wildly over-the-top cosplay contest, language workshops, authentic food, and more. Maybe the best year yet!

The main entry hall in the Carlsen Center

Bonsai tree display

   I met up with Renee and Joe, and we sat in on Kazuyo Rumbach's introduction to Japanese workshop. I took her classes at JCCC for several years, including basic, intermediate, conversation, and independent study courses. Rumbach-sensei is originally from Osaka. She is a fantastic teacher: very sharp, witty, and dedicated to her students. She has very high expectations, and even sitting in on this class for an hour brought the butterflies back to my stomach. You'd think I'd have outgrown that by now, but you'd be wrong.  -_-;

   It was so good to see her again and have a quick chance to catch up. She said that JCCC now employs 3 teachers of Japanese and is expanding the program—I was very excited to hear that there's so much interest! I hope someday to take some refresher courses.

   All that hard work worked up our appetites, so we went to Sama Zama's booth. SZ is owned and operated by my friends Erika and Vicki, who I met at their first restaurant, One Bite. SZ is in Westport, and is an Izayaka (think Japanese tapas). They have excellent gyoza, dango, UCC canned coffee, ramune soda...

Photo from Wikipedia. Our dango was so good that we scarfed them down before I thought to take a photo!

   ...and the piece de resistance, kakigori (shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk, strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries). This serving was as big as it looks: the 3 of us all shared!

   And what would be Japan Festival without some anime souvenir shopping? I found the PERFECT adornment for my snowboarding helmet: a Totoro beanie! There's no way you'll miss me coming down the mountain now!

   We rounded out our day by enjoying performances by a local Taiko group, Three Trails Taiko (featuring my friend—and adopter of my last foster Shiba, Zoe—Dianne), and Denver Taiko. Phenomenal! Click here for Zoe's adoption story.

Three Trails Taiko: photo from their Facebook page

Three Trails Taiko performance:

Denver Taiko performance: 

   Thanks to the dozens of volunteers of JAS (Japan-America Society) for a fun & informative festival! 'Til then, I'll be polishing up my Japanese mascot character presentation for next year, and hoping we can put together a booth for MSIR (Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue) as well...