Bon Odori 2008 Malaysia

Yesterday, on the 12th of July, us Malaysians celebrated the Bon Odori festival at the Matsushita Sports Complex.

Testing my camera on the way in ^^;

Click here to see more pictures from the Bon Odori 2008

At the entrance, there'll be a bunch of people standing there and giving out plastic fans.


The ones giving out the fans are in white and red T-shirts, if you haven't noticed already.


I arrived at around 5:40 PM, and the crowd was still quite small. The field is still quite empty.


At that time, there were already some performers on the yagura, but the event had not yet officially begun.



Not sure why they were on the yagura though. Practicing?


You should have noticed by now, but some of the girls on the yagura aren't in yukatas.

Taking pictures of people taking pictures

BTW- in case you were still wondering, this red and white "stage" is the yagura.



There were constantly people flowing in. The crowd grows.



Basically, there are two parts in this event- one is the yagura at the field, and the other is the food stalls, which are on a smaller field.

All those tents you see in the background are the food stalls, except the closest tent, which sells baloons

This is the crowd at the food stalls area. It's not quite as crowded as it looks.


For some reason, there was a looong line for the Yakult stall. Is Yakult that popular, or am I missing something?

BTW- The Yakult line is the foremost line in this picture

There were quite a number of stalls selling the famous takoyaki.


This year, Sushi King also set up a stall ^^; Don't remember seeing them around last year, but that could just be me.



As I was about to take the next picture, a red battery suddenly flashed on the screen, then the camera powered off ^^; My first reaction was, "WUT?" and I tried a few times to turn it back on. I knew the batteries were dead, but I still kept trying anyway. After a while, I gave up and decided to go with my handphone camera.. therefore, following pics are crap.

Would these two be meido or waitress? Bright orange-yellow meido, I guess?


Whatever. They were quite pretty. Shame I couldn't get a picture with them, since I was alone.


Nearly forgot to mention- they were there to help draw guys' attention advertise Yokomon. Yokomon is.. some kind of snack I think. I've forgotten already.

Spotted some would-be comrades too ^^;


How many of you watched Lucky Star? If you did, you might remember something about Blue Hawaii. Well, Blue Hawaii is a flavor of kakigouri- kakigouri is basically shaved ice with flavored syrup, with the option of condensed milk on top.

Blue Hawaii

When I saw Blue Hawaii being sold here, I knew I had to try it. Honestly though, I think I prefer our cendol more than kakigouri. The kakigouri was a little too plain.

Photography session for the performers. I so badly wanted my camera to come back alive at this point.

Taiko drummers on the yagura

Food stall area crowd has grown

So has the crowd on the field

At 7:15 PM, the Bon Odori began.





Oh- I recorded some of the dances, but don't expect quality recordings.





The ones dancing aren't only on the yagura though. Everyone around the yagura dances too.



Pictures of the crowd again-



I took this picture with the intention of capturing those two in identical outfits, but now that I look at it, the one on the far right is pretty cute too, don't you think? :P

Taiko drums

The crowd once again. Can't get much worse than this, can it? ^^;

Of all the food stalls, I would say the most popular one was Niko-niko kitchen.

This is the "line" from all the way at the back

Niko-niko kitchen was where I got my kakigouri from- other foods they were selling are ichigo daifuku, Chicken katsu curry, Yakisoba (I think), and tons of other stuff I can't remember. When I arrived, I had to queue up for 20 minutes+ to reach the stall. Around 8:40 PM, after waiting since 8:00 PM, I could only get about 7 feet close to the stall ^^;

While I was lining up, I spotted a pretty girl in a yukata, and proceeded to take a shot of her back. ^^;


After waiting for about 30 minutes, this is the "line" in front of me.


And this was the line that grew behind me ^^;


So basically, the two main things in this festival are the dances, and the food. If you're going to attend next year, I strongly suggest you bring some friends along, as it can get to be pretty boring alone. Unless you're a photographer, in which case your camera is your best friend.


Oh- and my apologies for the low-quality pics.

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