Japan Matsuri London 2011 - Part 2

(the new blogs have a slideshow feature : click on the pictures for a view in the slideshow then click on the URL /blogspot/...etc  at the bottom left to see the picture directly)

After the opening ceremony , I went to look for the Kimono Club (=Gang).
What a lovely surprise , Priscilla's in town again!

On the left : Priscilla. On the right : Hong giving me a thumbs-up. I'm just checking to see how many people I can fit in at this short a distance.

Ah! April arrives with her friend.

The newest gang-member : Kornelia (in the light blue kimono ).

Everybody's getting ready for the group picture , blissfully unaware that I'm already photographing them.

Apparently April, her friend and Kornelia want 2 copies of this picture. I'll take a note of that.


The members of the dance society were wearing really colourful kimonos with very shiny bows.

 

   

The lady on the right is their sensei (teacher). I remember seeing all of them at the Hyper Japan 2011 (I still have to post those pictures too ! )

We moved over to the other side of County Hall , right next to the Thames.

Everybody's chatting away, while smoke is wafting from a nearby stand.

A mikoshi was being carried around. There was so much security around it I couldn't get a clear shot , till somebody's shoulder gave way and they had to rearrange the bearers.

The procession continues, accompanied by shouts of "wasshoi"

One last group picture and it's goodbye Matsuri. Have fun. We'll meet again at the next one. 

( to be continued : I'll publish the pics from the 2010 Matsuri and Hyper Japan next)

Japan Matsuri London 2011 - Part 1

Last Sunday the Japan Matsuri 2011 was held in London : the perfect excuse for me to drive up there and spend a weekend in London.

This year the event was held at County Hall , right next to the Thames : the weather was fine, and the event was drawing a crowd , right from the start.

At the opening ceremony, the ambassador of Japan.

I can't read Japanese, but that has to be a ceremonial barrel of sake.

Everyone's having fun while getting ready for the cracking of the barrel.

 

Ready ? One, two , three, CRACK....

(to be continued)

Made in Asia 3

A week ago, the Made in Asia event had its third edition in Brussels.

I'd never heard of it before !

It was TOTAL  fun. The exposition floor was divided into several areasof Tokyo :

Akihabara for videogames

Harajuku for fashion

Shibuya for activities

Ikebukuro for magazines and fanzines

Shinjuku for all the shops
Also four small podiums and a movie viewing theatre. Heaven !

Welcome to Harajuku !

This is the Shinjuku area where the shops are ! 

(Why are there no hugging pillows with male characters ? )

They even had furin here ! Furin are Japanese wind chimes that are hung on the porch or near a window in summer. The summer breeze will make them chime. The ones in the picture are iron bells, they also exist in glass. I have two at home.

For Japanese people the sound of the furin's chime is forever connected to summertime.

The (french) sign says that's it's a custom to write a wish on the paper tag and every chime of the furin will remind you of that wish and encourage you to work hard to achieve it. Nice, but I think they made that up :) .

At the center of the expo , was the Japanese village, with small gardens, lots of information stands, a massage demonstration parlor, a tatami, where the martial arts were being demonstrated. The lighting was so bad, I couldn't get any decent pictures.

The Hashi shop where I got some lovely hashioki (chopstick rests).

 

This is the stand of Kino Junko who teaches calligraphy and furishiki-folding.

I bought these furishiki there ( Kino-san was so happy I bought them she threw in three folded cranes ).

 45 minutes to go and I'm standing in line waiting for the famous mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki and his wife Kurosakito Kaoru to arrive. He's so camera shy, we were all warned not to take any pictures because he doesn't want his ( and his wife's ) face plastered all over the Internet.
The other line to the right of me is waiting for Kanno Hiroki ( animator  and character designer , who worked on FullMetal Alchemist, Rahxphon,Eureka 7 ) . I love his work too, but I haven't got anything of him to sign.

OK, fair enough. So no picture. He signed my Rurouni Kenshin Volume 1.
The "for Walter" is in silver ink pen , the signature in gold ink pen. His wife stamped it with his hanko signature seal ( the thingy in red ). You can see the same kanji ( characters ) of his name on the left page.

This  is now one of my prized possessions :) and it will NOT be sold on Ebay. Not ever...

Sorry for not blogging for so long!

2010 Hyper Japan London

I still have to blog about the Matsuri 2 weeks ago :) but I'm back to London for another event.
It's near where the Matsuri was , so I get to park for free again at White Rows , where the whole second floor is reserved for motorbikes only. Bikers rule !

I'm meeting a couple of friends on the show : April, Lyuba, Hong and Francesco.

From left to right : Lyuba and Hong

Really lovely kimonos they've got on !

Interesting geta Hong is wearing. I wondered why she looked so much taller :)
That's a very pretty flower motif. Actually , they're not geta they're okobo.

Francesco is going to get fitted into samurai warlord gear ! I don't know if that's an obi, but April will definitely tell me what it is. It looks really pretty.

Getting ready for war is like getting ready to ride a bike. Tedious minutes of getting dressed just right because once you're riding, you can't adjust it anymore.
Don't want any arrows getting through  :)

Getting the helm fitted . It's really shiny.

Ready for war ! Bring them on ! Better yet, bring my horse : we'll go get them.

Francesco-sama and Hong-hime

They look totally lovely together, don't they ? 

My hero! "Must you really go off to war?"
"A man's got to do what a man's got to do, Hong-san."

This is my favourite picture : totally natural, no posing.

(I uploaded this picture to Picasa  click on the picture to get a really large version )  

After the show ,we went to eat something near Japan Center.As it began to rain umbrellas came out and Hong put on a rain garment to protect her kimono. I HAD to take a few shots.

"Wat are you taking pictures of me for ? "

 Lovely looking fabric , that is. I never knew such a garment existed : I learn something new every day.

Aha ! Food : glorious food ! And good company too, what more can you ask for ?

 My seafood sushi : yellowtail, tuna , mackerel, salmon , salmon roe , tuna , octopus and my first ever sea urchin( the yellow bits in the middle ). It was very tasty!

Hong's deep fried "somethings".

Lyubas tempura

Francescos salmon 'carpaccio ?'

Click here for the set on Flickr ( if you need the full size version of any, mail me )

Part of the Hyper Japan dealt with modern fashion and Lolita is a big part of that. These models come from all over. There's even a few from Japan to answer everybodies questions.

Lolita overload ! All the models crowding together on the stage.

Day 2 on the Hyper Japan.

At the kimono fitting stall , I saw this young woman. That's a very nice green.

While on the other side of the world , lots of Japanese are discovering Western fastfood and takeaway (which is not so good for their health) ,
Atsuko-san (from my cooking lessons) is over here in the UK trying to win us over to Japanese healthy cooking.There's a certain irony there.

I'm going to tell you all about this wonderful Japanese way of packed lunch!

I caught a fish THIS BIG yesterday ! ( OK, That's NOT what she was saying, haha :)

Can YOU spot the Pikachu in this picture ?

Behold. The mighty Bento box!

You put the rice in the bottom half.
The other goodies go in the top half.

The models from the Lolita event are joining in to have a go at bento making. Their abilities ranged from "I can cook an egg", " I only prepare spaghetti" to " I never cook" ( the Japanese girl on the right ! ). At least they were totally honest about it.  The blond girl on the left is a Belgian ! We're everywhere these days :)

2010 Japan Art Festival

The Japan Art Festival moved from 'faraway' Richmond to Central London, which suits me fine, because it's a lot easier to get to.

I had a go at Origami ( Paperfolding ) ( go on ! ask me what a valley fold is ! )  took a  Calligraphy lesson ( I can draw the kanji for tree !) .

My favourite lesson of the day was the Bento cooking lesson though , given by Atsuko and Masami from Atsuko's Kitchen. Their lessons are always a lot of fun and you get to eat the food you prepare afterwards.

Hello everybody! We're going to make Bento !

The ingredients : steamed corn, chicken teriyaki,cooked egg, grilled broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, edamame, ham and cheese, beans in a freshly made sesame sauce and ofcourse Japanese rice, freshly cooked.

Bento isn't just some rice and a few vegetables and meat, fish or chicken you chuck together.

For it to be a balanced meal , you should have half rice, half other ingredients : some meat or chicken or fish and vegetables.

The ingredients should be yellow, red, green , black , white, brown . They should be fresh and preferably in season , for the highest nutritional value.

A good Bento should contain a boiled, a steamed, a grilled, a fried and a marinaded ingredient to keep it interesting to eat. Some raw vegetable is good too.


Cool down the cooked foods well before closing the box : slowly cooling food will give germs plenty of time to multiply. Don't use watery or soupy dishes for the same reason.

Keeping it cooled is very important , since it's usually prepared in the morning ( to save time , you can cook some of the dishes the day before ) and you will be eating it at noon.

Because the food is cool when you eat it,the flavour will be less than when you eat it  warm or hot, so slightly increase the amount of spice or herbs used.
Presentation is important too : just like us Belgians :)  , Japanese eat with their eyes first and arranging the food is just as important as cooking it right.

The ingredients : steamed corn, chicken teriyaki, boiled egg, grilled broccoli, raw lettuce, tomatoes, edamame, ham and cheese, boiled beans in a freshly made sesame sauce and of course Japanese steamed rice, freshly cooked.

The right ingredients are important : Masami showing the mirin ( sweet sake ) that was used for the sesame sauce

The sauce is made like this :

• 1 Tablespoon of white roasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 Tablespoon of mirin
• 1/2 Tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce

If you don’t have pre-roasted sesame seeds, roast the seeds briefly in a small dry frying pan.
Then grind the seeds in a large suribachi (Japanese mortar) for five minutes till the sesame oil comes out and it turns into a paste. Add the sugar and crush some more. Add the mirin and soy sauce and mix.


Here we mixed the sauce with the cooked beans.

Bento Box 1 : the 'purple' rice has a mixture of dried red shiso mixed through it.

It all looks so tasty : doesn't it make you hungry?

Bento box 2 : the little rolls are made by putting a square slice of cheese on a square slice of ham , roll them up , cut in half and keep together with a cute cocktail stick. Kawaii !

Bento box 3 : Actually one of these 3 boxes was made by me : can YOU guess which one ? :)

I had a lot of fun making my bento and even more fun eating it. In fact , I immediately signed up for another lesson on the next day :) Double fun !