Phoenix, Arizona - 30th Annual Matsuri Festival

The 30th Annual Japanese Matsuri Festival is held this weekend, February 22 and 23, 2014 in Heritage and Science Park in downtown Phoenix.  The admission is free and there is plenty to do and see (and spend money on).  I will need several posts to cover the festival because my camera was going constantly and there is a lot to share.

The first post is about the festival in general.  Heritage Square is a great place for festivals because it is easy to disburse a crowd on the streets in the area.  This photo was taken by the Rosson House.  The theme of this year's event was "Chochin" (lanterns).  You will notice them in a lot of the photos.

 Long beautiful lanterns decorated the covered pavilion.  Smaller ones were strung across the lower areas.  This makes me want to have colorful lanterns hanging outside in my "breezeway".

 This man was giving a demonstration on various fighting tools.

 His section had several warrior outfits on display.

 This booth showed some of the old items from Japan.  The shoes were interesting and did not look comfortable.

 Beautiful Japanese characters were on the paper banners.

 And the lanterns. This one reminded me of my travels to Japan.

 These looked like portable pagodas.

 There were a lot of food and drink booths and lines moved fairly fast.

 This food booth was named "Arizona Buddhist Temple".

 I saw this and it reminded me of the Sensoji Temple in Japan and the "Holy Smoke".  I walked over to see it and found a BBQ!  You can read the Holy Smoke post...click here.

 I saw this as I was leaving.  A group of teen boys had purchased swords.  Great!

Don't stop here. The fun is only beginning...see costumes and the Candy Man!