blackrose_bon odori!!!!!

OMG

OMG!!!!!!!!!

One fateful day my friend from the Diploma Kejuruteraan Jepun (her name is Shafienaz, thank you) started one fateful conversation. It was something like this:

Fify: Tim (kantoi name btol), do you know about Bon Odori?
Me: Of course I know that one! I'm dying to go there!

Fify: Wanna go there? It's on the 18th of July. Heard that INTEC will provide a bus to go there.

Me: NANI???????? (random Japanese words followed later)

I AM SOOOO GOING TO BON ODORI!!!!!!

It turned out that INTEC did provide a bus to go to Panasonic Sports Complex, hence saving my RM2 worth of bus fare (okay, so it's just RM2, but I can buy one ikan keli with that. Life is hard without allowances T_T). Initially planned to go there with Nemo and Fatin, but ended up going with Linda, Fatin and Oura instead (the two made a last-minute decision, while Nemo decided that a beauty nap is better than a Nihon festival).

By the time we reach there, the place was already packed with people.

Sugoi! I was like, am I really attending a Bon Odori Festival????OMG!!! It's been a part of my dream since, what, four years ago? And now I'm able to brag in front of my bro, telling him "Akak dah pegi dah Bon Odori [menacing laughs]". How sugoi was that?

Being compulsive buyers that we all are (despite the absence of JPA allowance money), we headed straight to the Japanese product booths. 6 pm at that time, we had like 1 hour to go before the real event starts, so might as well get something to eat. Or drink (not sake or Asahi beer!).

So the Sushi King booth became our first victim.

the RM4 crabmeat sushi. Jusco's was rm1 each, but what do you expect from Sushi King?

Linda and Oura. Linda's first sushi experience?

everybody say "Oishii!!!"

Food was okay, but the price turned us down. I would especially love to eat an unagi bento set, but for RM6? No thank you. Iie, arigatou (direct translation). One cup of ice cream can cost up to RM5, and two cute balls of mochi costed RM2. A bowl of ramen costed RM10 (yet people were waiting in long queues for it). I was dying for some dango and takoyaki, but there's too many people at the booth. So all of us had to do with nasi lemak for dinner (like, very ironic. You go to a Japanese matsuri to eat nasi lemak for dinner????).

others prefer unagi bento, but whaddaheck, nasi lemak rulezzz!!!

Apart from eating and 'shopping' (told you we're compulsive buyers), another favourite among us is to snap pictures with people in yukata...

sweet Japanese family ^^ awwww

we 'kidnapped' this girl while her mother went to buy some ice cream...smthg..

...And also with a Gothic Lolita (hello sister!!!) [note that at Bon Odori you are not advised to wear cosplay/Decora/Gosurori/Alice Auaa/Moitie/Algonquins/h.naoto Blood so as to respect the Japanese ancestors and their traditions. But the Gothic Lolita was cuuuuute!!!]

the gothloli's not at the centre. She's at the far right

cool plushie. Hangry or Angry?

And then, the best part would definitely be the Bon Odori Dance! We only managed to join the second part of the dance, but it was something not to be forgotten of. Fancy Parapara-ing to traditional Japanese songs? Then Bon Odori is the place to be! (You know me rite; that Parapara was an exaggeration).

hai!!!!let's parapara!!!!

It's a pity that our dance was cut short (very short indeed, we only managed to follow one-sixth of the second part dance T_T), coz someone (president of INTEC's Japanese Club I guess) told us we were required to go back at 8.30pm. But despite the short duration of our first Bon Odori experience, I dare say that it's one of the best things I've ever had in my life!

Who's going with me for next year's Bon Odori?