World Festa Yokohama

It was a beautiful Columbus Day weekend here in Japan with lots going on...I met up with some friends to head to Yokohama for another multicultural day.  Our first stop was the World Festa.  Eisuke was getting me all pumped up, because he said that between two days of festivities, over 500,000 people were supposed to show up to enjoy the food and fun.  However, when we got there, it wasn't so great.  Of course, we had a fun time anyway.  Here we are getting a photo with the cute Miso Soup Man.

 Eisuke was sharing his paella with me...the theme this year was seafood, since it is a prominent staple here in Japan.  I'm just glad that after eating some of this my mouth didn't taste like "ocean" as Eisuke would say.  

 We were super excited to see the tent for the United States...

 ...and this is what was inside.  A bunch of crap, plastic toys that were probably made in China.  Who was in charge of this?  You're making us look bad!  Mark made sure to point out that even though they may be from China, they sure have a presence at the Kentucky State Fair, where he's from.  It was still a big disappointment.  I would love to know what you would have put in the U.S. tent to represent us...

 I had to stop by the Ecuador tent to see what kind of gifts I can look forward to once my mom gets back...it looks like I'll probably get a little fake alpaca statue with fur glued to it...or maybe some mittens or a hat made of alpaca fur...just please don't get me a rancher vest.  They had plenty of them here.   

 Here's a view of the main stage and food court.  They did have a lot of food stands.  I chose the Brazilian beef skewer.  It was fabulous!

 They also had some really random things...imagine that...random things in Japan!  There was a stand where you could rent costumes for the day and walk around wearing them, but you had to return them before you left.  This lovely lady was dressed up, I think as Commodore Perry, but I'm not really sure.  She was super excited to be in pictures though!  After posing with her, we headed off to our next festival.