AKI MATSURI

by Gaby

Myself and friends in our yukata

It is that time of year again, summer has officially ended and the fall festival season is here, time for Aki Matsuri! 

Shiba Inu

Aki matsuri
 秋祭 (あきまつり) 
autumn festival is a traditional Japanese fall festival where people thank the gods for a good harvest and pray for the well being of their family and community. They are celebrated throughout Japan after the rice harvest.  Now in modern times, and especially outside of Japan, we have these celebrations mostly as a tribute to Japanese culture, with some traditional Aki Matsuri festivities and others are just in general Japanese demonstrations for all who come enjoy the culture.  
 

lots of vendors

This year was pretty great, we went to the Dallas Japanese Association's celebration on Sunday 9/27 and had a pretty awesome time. 
I especially enjoyed the delicious Teppo's eel bowls, so good, I ended up having two helpings of the $9 bowls.  I ate a bit too much at the festival, enjoyed some Mr. Sushi's yakisoba, some ramune, and a melon soda from Shop Minoya.  


The festival started in the morning at 10am, I got there a bit past then but I hadn't had breakfast so went straight to the food.  Some of the performances on stage where so, so, while others more entertaining, but it was the usual, martial arts displays, dances, and

more vendors and games

songs.   I tried the chopstick challenge where I picked up an average of 25-28 crackers in about 30 seconds.  The most popular game was fishing for goldfish of course, where you had to fish a goldfish with a thin paper scoop. Our fellow anime blogger Jenny even won two prizes at the Teru Teru ball toss, which is a game that basically reminded us of beer pong, she won a little ghost creature that was totally adorable. Oh and we even saw a cosplayer!

Cosplayer

There is another Aki Matsure Fall Festival celebration coming up in October in Fort Worth at the Botanical Gardens, its a lot prettier with it being in the gardens, but this one has the best food.
Yay for autumn!