kenleewrites in 日本

It had been a rather long weekend! I feel lucky that today turned out to be a holiday. Health-Sports Day, but I spent most of it in bed trying to rid myself of the weekend fatigue. Been quite successful at that. ^^.

Our 水餃子 (sui gyoza) stall. It was pretty bare in the morning. ^^. Lots of calligraphy though. We were all busy making gyoza.

手作り餃子 (tetsukuri gyouza). Handmade gyoza.

Sui gyoza was pretty yummy.

Choose from an assortment of sauces.

Say “aaaa”…

Tonjiru too.

This is the last year I’m participating in the festival though – two main reasons. One, at the end of this semester (ending in March 2009), my lab will close down. My professor passed away a little over a month ago and with no one heading the lab, we students will be scattered to the four winds; we’ll all be assigned to different research labs. Two, I’ll be graduating before the next Yagami Festival. ^^.

With Permanent Head Damage, I wonder how I’ll do out there. ^^.

Anyway, let’s follow Miss Shinsengumi and check out what’s out there at this year’s festival.

Stalls are out and lots of food is being prepared.

hmm… Lots of teppanyaki.

Yakisoba…

takoyaki…

okonomiyaki… Hiroshima-styled okonomiyaki…

wieneryaki…

Teppanyaki is an integral part of Japanese festivals. See it all the time. What’s a typical festival food over at where you are? Oh look, the lab coat band and the fuzzy hair band are playing. ^^.

Took alot of wires to organize this event.

My juniors made me wear this and sent me out to distribute flyers.

I had some pretty good company giving out flyers at the entrance. ^^.

Well, better Katsuo than a walking dustbin.

Recycling stations. Everything is separated before disposal. I wonder if any other countries have such a comprehensive recycling program.

I wonder… have they found Wally yet?

A street side magician. Everyone loves a good magic show.

YagaTube anyone? Yagami… YouTube… get it? YagaTube? ^^.

I wonder what these kids are up to… ^^.

Have you been to MIT’s infinite corridor? I went there twice for conferences. This is no where near infinite, but it’s rather long. ^^. One of the lovely corridors in the older buildings.

There were some stage shows…

Some exhibits…

A talk by Japanese astronaut Hoshide…

A beauty salon…

A bazaar…

Tamiya racing for small and big kids. Three tamiya tracks. You could rent the car (where’s the joy in that) if you didn’t bring your own. But it did seem rather popular with the kids.

Some bits from the beauty contest.

The twin MCs. Is it me or is just about every guy wearing this style now?

The kebab is calling as it starts getting dark… hmm… maybe some turkish ice cream.

The evening band was pretty good. They gave out free singles to promote their music. I managed to get myself one. Haven’t tried it yet though; it’s still in the bag. ><

Our trusty pot. Helped us sell every single gyoza we made.

My friend’s baby. Isn’t she cute. ^^

So there you have it, a somewhat small but still happening little campus festival out here in suburbia Tokyo. Care to join us next year? ^^.