Japanfest In Munich

After a nerve-wracking half-hour search for a parking space in Munich city center, we finally managed to visit the 22nd Japan Festival in the English Garden last Sunday.
To be honest, I only knew about the festival through stories, because it is apparently THE meeting place for all Munich cosplayers, anime and Japan fans. Apparently it really is, because it was packed. And in the biggest park in the city!

From Ikebana to Ramune - Japan Festival in Munich

The festival is organized by the German-Japanese Society in Bavaria eV, the Japanese Consulate General and the Japan Club Munich and places great emphasis on the cultural aspect.
This was immediately apparent, as a veritable sea of ​​Ikebana spread out before our eyes at the beginning. Ikebana (いけばな) is an art form in which flowers are artistically arranged and the exhibition was really impressive. There were even real "traffic jams" because people wanted to take a close look at all the flowers.
In addition to the exhibition itself, there was a competition and a small workshop where you could create your own arrangement.

After all the flowers, we went to the Shodo stands, but I could only see the thousands of calligraphy sheets hanging up, with writing on them, because the stream of people didn't want to stop. We just let ourselves be carried on by that. Past seated Go players and over to the martial arts.
As an admirer of the art of fencing, I was particularly impressed by the Kendo (剣道) performance.

Directly opposite, you could also register for the Haiku competition (俳句). This type of poem is said to be the shortest in the world and is usually made up of three groups of words of 5 - 7 - 5 morae (sound units).

After we had more or less got an overview, we finally went to the food stalls. We had to wait in line for a whopping 45 minutes... But it was definitely worth it! Not only did we get to watch all the cosplayers while we waited, but the food was also delicious. The well-known Japanese drink Ramune (ラムネ) was also sold, but after I saw it literally spraying at people when they opened the bottle twice, I bought the fizzy drink just to take home to be on the safe side.

A more successful Sunday stroll

I particularly liked the cultural focus. When many people think of Japan, they mainly think of sushi and manga, but of course Japan is so much more than that. It was also very nice to see young and old coming together on one day and sharing their interest in a country that lies on the other side of the globe.

Next time I would really like to have more space because I probably missed or simply overlooked half of the interesting things. But it was definitely a very nice Sunday afternoon and absolutely worth the visit!

No, no, no
Francy