花火!!!

Last weekend, we were invited to attend a Japanese Festival by a friend of ours who's family was hired to be in charge of the festival's fireworks show that would officially close the event. (The school even had that big watch I was hoping to see!!! - sorry for being a dork again) I, along with many of my friends, have this huge fascination with everything and anything Japanese. So, you could just imagine how excited we were to get there. At least, I was.

We got there a bit later than we planned but it was well and good. By this point, after seeing so many Japanese people and stalls, I just felt like my heart was about to burst.

Look at that! Look at all those people! I really couldn't stop smiling. I felt like such a dork. However, more than women and men in yukatas, I was more excited to see if they had those games where you scoop up goldfish with a scooper called a poi. The game, I think, is called Kingyo-sukui which can be translated as, 'Goldfish Scooping.' And voila! We did find one.

Holy moley...I wanted to play this so bad but was too worried that if I did catch a goldfish, where on earth would I put it? It was P100 for three tries. Nobody really seemed to mind the price. There were other scooping games but I don't have a picture of them.

Anyway, once I saw that, I was finally able to focus more on the people that were there.

Oh, of course there was this too. 

Up on that platform inside those cagey bars were taiko players. I don't actually know the specifics of why there's a stage in the middle of the field but the whole thing added to the appeal of it. Those pretty, colorful lanterns were nice too. 

After the extremely welcome culture shock, we got hungry. Actually, to be more accurate, before leaving to go here, we were already hungry. Obviously, we hunted for food next. There were takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, ramen, etc., but what we ended up with was a bento that was only P100.

On the upper left of that bento set is seaweed I think. It was really, really good. I ate that last. Then there's the chicken just to right of that, meatballs all covered with that red sauce, and chopped up cabbage and two slice of pickled something. I forget now what it was. Then on the bottom right is a delicious mix of secret sauce, onions, and meat. To be honest, I'm not really sure. It was kinda dark. I couldn't tell what it was but the food was great.

But of course, I don't think this food experience would be complete without Japanese sweets. It was thanks to these that I couldn't eat anything else. These little buggers were pretty heavy inside the tummy. And, can you believe that one ball of that is equal to one cup of rice? No wonder I felt bloated after eating some. Too bad they didn't have some taiyaki and they didn't have any dango left. :( I really wanted to try those.

On the upper right is a daifuku. It has red bean paste in it. Actually, all of those, except the one on the left, had red bean paste in it. The one below the daifuku though had whole beans inside and tasted kinda like hopia. I think that one's called kuromochi. I feel pretty useless that I have to say again that I can't remember what that one on the left is called. It's basically gelatin made, 'with the taste of sakura,' as the lady who was selling it told us. It was the same with that one on the bottom - the sakuramochi. The leaves made the sakuramochi a tad salty. I think it resembled the Philippine suman a bit. The one in gelatin was a lot sweeter than it looked.

Sorry I couldn't get a better shot.     m(._.)m

That one was very pretty looking.  I was hesitant to eat it but this was actually the first one I tried. Glad I was able to buy it. They ran out of this one pretty fast.

This was the stall where we bought the sweets.

They had a stock of business cards and I got one and was surprised to see that they had a place in Parañaque. 

Kyoko Ty

No. 7 Pasananca St., South Green Park

Parañaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Tel/Fax: 63-2-828-9614

Cel: 0917-7955173

Email: t_house1006@yahoo.co.jp

Check it out if you have the time or if you're in the area. I haven't yet but I just felt like sharing the info in case you're curious enough to find the place.

Moving on, as the night progressed, students and teachers performed for the crowd.

Once that was done, people started dancing on the stage.

I suddenly just realized that this entry is getting too lengthy with photos and yet there are still more I want to post! With that being said, I've decided to make a part two for this topic. On the next entry, I'll be posting more about the dancing in the courtyard. We even attempted to follow along and we somewhat succeeded when the crowd started to dance with the choreography. Super cool. 

Before I forget, the title of this blog is, 'Fireworks!!!'

Here is where you'll find part 2 of this entry.