Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition

Tucson Japanese Festival 2025

by Carolyn Classen, blogger This is our 9th festival (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024), once again at Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Rd. NEW extended hours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so more hours, more fun. (Used to be 11 to 3 p.m.) I’m the website Editor of the sponsoring … Read more

Photo Gallery of 2019 Tucson Japanese Festival

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.

Mochi display for New Year’s, courtesy M Fumie Craig
Volunteers serving mochi samples with kinako, courtesy M Fumie Craig
SAJCC Director Yuki Ibuki welcoming the audience, courtesy of Louis Rivera
koi on display by Southern Arizona Koi Association, courtesy of M  Fumie Craig
Tucson Japanese Language School display, courtesy M  Fumie Craig

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Tucson Japanese Festival 2019

If you don’t know what takoyaki balls (made from octopus) are, check out our 6th annual Tucson Japanese Festival, which was previously called the Tucson Mochitsuki for the mochi (rice) pounding event highlight. Our Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition (SAJCC) is still pounding & making mochi, but we feature other Japanese activities and performances as  well.  Here’s the flyer and schedule of events below.

NEW location — Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Rd. (between Oracle and La Canada Drive) –no longer at PCC Downtown, where it was for past 3 years).

 

Enjoy the ramen and my favorite, spam musubi (very popular back home in Hawaii, where it is ubiquitous). It is cooked rice, covered by a wrapping of nori (seaweed) with fried spam inside.

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Talk on WWII Japanese American internment camps in Arizona

Many people still come up to me and say that they had no idea that there were two large internment camps in Arizona (at Gila River and Poston) during WWII. These camps in the desert were created as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt signing E.O. 9066 which impacted over 120,000 Japanese Americans, 2/3 of … Read more