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Well, it’s been a really long time since I’ve written anything… and I have a really good excuse. For the past few weeks I’ve been super busy with the Cherry Blossom Festival in Philly. We had so many events going on, and it was great to be able to help put it together. Especially since I got to go to most of the events for free, too. Even though it was a lot of hard work, for the most part it was the kind of hard work that comes with a great feeling of happy exhaustion when you’re finished. And that’s how I feel this week. So now that I have time, I’ll go over a few of the highlights of the festival:

Gala
We started off the festival with a big gala dinner and a silent auction. Since we just got a new camera, I got to be the photographer for the event, so I took tons of photos and videos. The silent auction was pretty cool too; there were a lot of really neat items for sale, including one of my own paintings (which, incidentally, got sold for $270)!

Sushi Contest
Madame Saito owns a sushi restaurant in Philly, and she held a sushi making contest at Temple University for the festival. I had never made sushi in my life before, but she invited me to go and I did. I wasn’t expecting what I saw there: everyone was so good! I mean… it was an amateur contest, but everyone had their own knives and plates and fancy this-and-that. I had only made sushi at the practice class, and I was really bad! But I did my best anyway, and it was a lot of fun. Naturally, I didn’t win, but I did get a cool diploma from Temple, so now I can hang it on the wall next to my Ringling diploma and look impressive.

Sake Tasting Festival
This is pretty much what it sounds like — a big event centered on Japanese sake. Again, I got to go for free since I was helping out, and I got to drink tons of sake and eat a lot of different kinds of food too. Who could ask for anything more! And on top of that, I got to meet a lot of new friends. There were so many volunteers during the Cherry Blossom Festival, and it’s always nice to see the same ones come more than once.

Japanese Culture Week
Every day for one week, we had a cultural event at Liberty Place mall. On Monday we had the dancers from Tamagawa University in Japan perform, on Tuesday we had a sushi making demonstration with Madame Saito, and Wednesday we had a martial arts demonstration with aikido and karate, on Thursday there was Japanese singing and koto music performed by Masayo Ishigure (who worked on the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack!), and on Friday we had a kimono dressing demonstration. The Tamagawa performers were by far the most imteresting event, and they did many other performances throughout the festival. Getting to take photos of them was so much fun, and getting to do it for free made it even better! There’s something nice about being a photographer, because nobody thinks its weird if you just confidently sit up front or walk somewhere where nobody else is standing in order to get a neat view. Emiko, my friend from conversation club, and Asami, whom I met at the Sake festival, both came to cultural week, so it was nice to get to meet with them there.

Sakura Sunday
By far the coolest event, Sakura Sunday is basically an all-day free festival outdoors in Fairmount Park. There were shops, food, and performances all day long in this area surrounded by flowers and blossoming cherry trees. The Cherry Blossom Queen was there from Japan, and the Tamagawa students performed again. I was working the souvenir shop all day, so I didn’t really get a chance to go around and see the other events, but I had a great view of the Tamagawa performers from my spot. I also managed to sell 7 of my own paintings, so I pretty much covered my costs in making the prints. Woohoo! All in all, it was a perfect day, and a great event. Afterwards, I went out with Naota, a coworker, and Miki and Kanako, two of the volunteers, for Japanese food. If nothing else, I’m glad that I got to meet some new friends at the festival.

Sushi Spectacular
This was our final big event, and one of the busiest! We flew 12 of the top sushi chefs in the world in to Philadelphia for a huge top-class sushi dinner. Guests had to pay $95 to eat sushi made for them by these chefs, (again, I got in for free ^_^) and it was worth it! This was definitely the best sushi I’ve ever eaten. The Cherry Blossom Queen was there again, and I finally got a chance to talk to her. She was very nice and talkative. She spoke English very well, too, and I was pretty shocked to learn she was only 19. Naota worked with the chefs, and Miki and Kanako also volunteered again. I and one of the girls manned the entry area, and we were stuck behind a coffee bar… so unfortunately we had people coming up and trying to buy ice cream and coffee from us all night. Of course, on the same note, we were able to raid the fridge for ourselves ^_^. After the event, the Cherry Blossom Queen invited us out to the after-party at Madame Saito’s restaurant. Miki and Kanako didn’t go, but Naota and I did. It was pretty intimidating for both of us… we were surrounded by very conservative, very famous chefs, and the Cherry Blossom Queen. And of course, I had a lot of trouble understanding things so it was pretty embarassing for me. I’m pretty glad the trains to NJ run 24/7, or else I would’ve been in some trouble by the time I went home.

So now I have a bit of vacation! Huu! >_< What a busy time it was! But I’m so glad I was able to work there and help with the festival. The events were so fun, and I’m really glad I got to meet the people I met there. My Japanese has definitely improved so much since I started working at the Japan America Society (unfortunately it’s still not very good), and the festival was also a great chance for me to practice. Now that it’s over, I’ll go back to working twice a week and painting for the rest of the week. It also means I have more free time to study my Japanese books. And hopefully to spend some time with the new friends I met!