Bob, Kate and I attended the Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden today and the weather was just perfect for it. The main reason why I wanted to go was to see the sumo demonstration and that did not disappoint. Man, those athletes are GINORMOUS! The smaller sumo wrestler weighed in at about 315 pounds and he looked tiny compared to the other who weighed at about 450. And they were both funny, joking about only coming back to St. Louis for the White Castle’s. We got to see them demonstrate the rituals and they even had some participation from the audience.
We saw quite a few beautiful things there but there is nothing more interesting than people watching at this particular festival because it seems to bring out the freaks. I mean, you had people dressed in goth or in kimonoes that Japanese people wouldn’t even touch with a ten-foot pole. Then you also had this group of people carrying these creepy weird dolls and had them interact with each other on the lawn. And there was every color of the rainbow in terms of dyed hair as well as anime-styled hairdos. Surprisingly, there were very few Japanese people there and quite a few Aisans that we did see were Chinese. So, to sum up the Festival, please enjoy the following photos:
