The Japan festival

This was held in Collingwood town hall and was a lot smaller. The one at north Melbourne was bigger and it occupied two levels. There was a train which went straight there.

If you are in a kimono or yukata entrance is free.

Food

Drinks

Alcohol

A traditional Japanese game

Calligraphy art

Matcha

Outdoor activities

Coffee

At the market stalls

Crockery

Toys and more toys (below)

 This time I spent $10 on entrance, raffle (I won nothing but sweets) and the tea ceremony. It was fun to drink the real matcha which was bitter but we had a few sweets to go with it. It was also fun watching the maiko make the tea the traditional way.

At a tea tasting stall

The coffee is from seonsory lab and was made by the Japanese volunteers. It was $2 but it was good coffee. If they had even bigger it would be better and more types done then more people can enjoy the unique flavours of the coffee.

There were some unique daifiku  (Japanese dessert) but I was full from lunch. The other plates which were small were between $5-$10. I had expected some sort of Japanese sushi bentos to be sold there as they were last time at North Melbourne. Oh well at least they sold some real Japanese drinks.

Also the food vendors were very small this time. At North Melbourne there were lots. The only vendors were Zero Lam and Wabi Sabi garden which had some sort of Banh Mi which is actually Vietnamese.