Mid-South Con/Go Hime Entry and Sakura Festival

This past weekend was Mid-South Con, a local sci-fi/fantasy convention. They do include some anime things, but for the most part, it's not my cup of tea. Josh and I decided to go on Saturday mostly based on being bored, and my sister was doing some promotional stuff there. Last minute, I decided to do kimono hime style with my blue sparrow and take Taisho Roman kimono. Here's the result:

The orange colored "obidome" is actually a Pikachu button because the little pink rose obidome I had on broke... I also decided to enter this in the Go Hime contest. Here's to hoping!

On Sunday, we had our local Sakura Festival. This is the first year that we've had to do it indoors and there were no sakura trees blooming! Usually, the blossoms are almost gone by now because our weather gets warm early, but it's been an usually cold spring so far, so the buds haven't bloomed yet. And it was rainy on top of being cold!

Anyway, my dance group performed traditional and modern dances, and they also had taiko drummers and various stations with crafts or other culture things to do. Here's some pictures from the day:

The entrance

Wasting time before the performance

The guys did a traditional dance called "Kojo no Tsuki".

Our modern dance to "Oh! Enka"

Our traditional dance was "Sakura Sakura".

Our traditional dance was "Sakura Sakura".

Bon odori dancing; this one is "Tokyo Ondo".

Bon odori dancing; this one is "Nintama Ondo".

Our dance group =)

Some of the little gifts for sale, mostly homemade!

Sachi-san and me. I love her style!

Sachi-san made tea for the guests

Sachi-san made tea for the guests

Sachi-san did kimono dressing, too!

Me in my yukata. (Please note that I'm wearing tabi because of the dance.)

Taiko drummers

Taiko drummers

Tea Sweets: Wagashi

I have been doing a little research on the internet about higashi, dry sweets served with thin tea (usucha), after reading more books about tea ceremony lately. I have had the pleasure to try these little sweets during a tea ceremony demonstration at the annual Japanese festival at Memphis Botanical Gardens this past September. Higashi are made of a special type of sugar called wasanbon and pressed into molds. According to most sites I viewed, they almost impossible to get or make. My response to that is this: Rakuten. I typed "wasanbon" in the search box and a bunch of higashi came up, as well as wasanbon itself, of course. They range from the simple dome shape to elaborate flowers and shapes. The higashi range from about ¥525 (about $6.25) and up, depending on the variety and amount you buy. If you are feeling adventurous, you can try this recipe using either traditional Japanese molds (available at tea-passage.com) or plastic candy molds.

Namagashi, on the other hand, are a little different. These are wet sweets served with thick tea (koicha). While namagashi are supposed to be handmade and eaten usually within a day of making, you can easily use store-bought mochi or daifuku for informal situations. Also, recipes are easier to find on the internet if you feel like making some yourself.


And now I'm dying for a tea party. Anyone interested?

(Photos are from jimmie04's Flickr and Japan Foodie.)