The 18th Honolulu Festival is ongoing this weekend, I only learned about it thursday morning when a blurb was read about it on the radio that I have set to wake me up. Otherwise I may have missed it, they seemed to have bypassed print ads. Drawn by the lure of air conditioning and easy access I went to check out the events held at the convention center today. In a little bit of a bummer, it seems most of the Japanese performers were at the other venues. It was still interesting. It did give me more of a chance to walk around and check out the booths set up, something I haven’t really done other years. Quite cool was the Nagaoka booth who this year is bringing their famed hanabi/fireworks for a Hawaii show. They were supposed to do it last year, but well, I think it’s pretty understandable when you remember what was going on in Japan this time last year. What was really cool aside from the mock up giant firework shells, was the sake samples. Free booze! And pretty good stuff at that!
There were a few other cultural booths. Less interesting knick knack and food stuffs booths. The back saver lumbar support thingy booth seemed really out of place in a cultural festival, but heck, I suppose it wouldn’t be out of place for a normal fair or matsuri. One area was a display of artworks, some pretty cool sumi works, oil painting and a few other different media works ranging from pretty interesting to pedestrian. And tucked away in a quiet corner I came across what might be the coolest things ever. Yes cooler than the scary cosplay cafe (more scary than cool actually) and even cooler than free booze.
Yes, you got that right, wrestling masks! A quick internet search reveals that the artist Jun Matsuura is a local guy who actually makes masks and sells them!
Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ll make it out to the performance venues tomorrow, but I do plan to get to the parade and the grand finale of the Nagaoka fireworks off Waikiki, hope the weather holds out!
Lucha!