Our Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition sponsored our 6th annual New Year’s Tucson Japanese Festival on Jan. 20, 2019 at the a new location, the lovely Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Rd. We seemed to have outgrown PCC Downtown where we hosted the 3rd, 4th and 5th festivals.
The highlight again was the mochi pounding (from rice), making and sampling.
This festival was a huge success with about 2000 people attending, and several dance/music performances, martial arts group demos, exhibitors (including Southern Arizona Koi Assn.), tea ceremonies, the art of kimono, children’s games (Go, kendama, fukuwarai), and of course, delicious Japanese food for sale and sample. As publicity chair, I was astounded at the # of attendees, considering that most information went out via FB or online, and not in print.
Photos below taken by M. Fumie Craig, founder of Tucson Origami Club and MC Louis Rivera, except for one by volunteer Teena Werley, which are all captioned.
