48th Annual Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival

We attended the Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom) Japanese Street Festival, which was sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC. It is the largest one-day exhibition of Japanese culture in the U.S. There were four main areas – arts and crafts, the Ginza Marketplace, Taste of Japan, and J-POP Land (Japanese pop culture). Also, several stages had live traditional Japanese performances.

Justin was able to meet the beautiful 2008 Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen, along with the 2008 U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen. After taking his picture with both Cherry Blossom Queens, they gave him a large booklet about past and present Cherry Blossom queens. We watched several martial arts groups perform – aikido, jujitsu, karate, kendo, etc.









This person dressed up in a sumo wrestler costume made us laugh. He was there to help generate interest in an impromptu female sumo wrestling contest, which was held during a break between martial arts performances. Pairs of female volunteer wrestlers came forward from the audience – good, clean fun!


The most interesting part for me was watching the Tamagawa University performers. The drummers’ choreography and the rhythms of the taiko drums were fun to watch. The women dancers fused traditional dances and music with a touch of modern moves and rhythms - very lively and engaging. Brian was able to meet the Tamagawa dancers, but acted very shy while with them.
What an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon with the family – good food, warm weather, unique and interesting performances.