Matsuri in Sydney or More Japanese Food Than You Should Cram into a Day

Darling Harbour hosts quite a few cultural and social events throughout the course of the year. It has a nice, centralized location which makes it easy to find and just as easy to stumble upon, which makes it ideal for these sorts of things.

On Saturday, there were two festivals going on at the same time. One of them, we had planned to see. The other was a complete surprise! I also got the chance to get a bird's eye view of the city and eat at a sushi train for the first time ever.

It was a very eventful and fulfilling day!

Which means that this is going to be yet another really long post.

Mike and Wes had gone out Friday night to see Aesop Rock, a "very intelligent white boy who talks really fast", at Manning Bar in town. They unfortunately missed the station for our house because Wes was asleep and Mike was playing video games, and ended up having to walk twenty minutes in muggy, post-rainstorm weather to get home. Whoops. Thus, they got home again around two in the morning. Originally, they'd planned to be back by about twelve-thirty or one.

In spite of their late night out, we got up bright and early Saturday morning (well, it was cloudy and raining but still morning) to go to the Japanese festival being held on the harbour. The weather said that it would be stormy on and off all day, but we decided to brave the bad weather, anyway. We knew that there would be a lot of food and a number of demonstrations on the main stage starting at eleven-thirty in the morning, so we got ready (which took me the longest, because I'm indecisive and left some vital accessories in Houston, d'oh) and drove to Sydenham to catch the train from there.

Along the way, we discussed plans for Mike's birthday next week, our housewarming next month, the wedding of a few friends and any number of other subjects. We had lots of time to talk; for some reason there was a ridiculous amount of traffic between us at the station. Then, when we got there, the ticket machine which takes cards and cash was broken, so we had to use the one which dispenses tickets by coin only.

Thank you, Mike, for having lots of spare change in your backpack.

We owe you one.

At last, we boarded the train headed for the city! We soon discovered that the train was full of tourists (just like me) who had no idea what train they actually needed. There was also a girl with really awesome hair and a rocking pinstripe dress reading Lolita in the upper part of the car, but I digress.

At Town Hall, we hopped off and walked through the underground tunnels to the entrance to the Galeries, one of Sydney's many shopping centers. We stopped at Woolworths in the tunnels for water along the way (so I could take my noon dose of pills).

After that, we went up through the Galeries to catch the Monorail to Darling Harbour. As we were walking through, Mike remarked on Sushi Hotaru as we passed it. Sushi Hotaru a relatively new sushi train in the Galeries. Wes said "oh, we'll have to go there some day!" and our fates were sealed. Because what the Foodie predicts always comes true. At least when it comes to dinner.

Anyway, we kept on trekking up the many escalators until we came to the monorail station. At this point, I didn't get the camera out because the monorail cars

1. are covered in wrap-around advertising on the outside, obscuring the windows and
2. run really close to the buildings of Sydney, rendering photo taking pretty much impossible.

You'll just have to believe me when I say that it was a really neat ride. Very touristy, but that's okay with me. I'm still technically in that class of humanity and all. The best part was getting to see all of the architecture of the city up close and personal. Many of the buildings have been very well-preserved and have fascinating decoration.

After a very brief (as in, less than ten minute) ride, we arrived safe and sound at the Darling Harbour station! At this point, I got the camera out and got clicking.

Dancing Brolga Fountain at Darling Harbour

When we arrived at the festival itself, the crowds were still fairly sparse. A very, very Australian woman on the stage was strumming away folksy songs on her guitar (which surprised us; we thought there would be kendo at that point in the day and nothing she sang had anything to do with Japanese culture). There were still lots of lovely things to take photos of away from the stage, though!

Darling Harbour was an interesting mishmash of culture on Saturday.

There were cute kids all dressed up EVERYWHERE.

Cutely dressed adults, too!

We immediately assessed the stalls to see what we wanted to eat first and got into line for the okonomiyaki. On a stick.

Uhm. Yummy.

There's some rule about festival foods having to be served on a stick. I'm just glad that the yaki-soba booth didn't try to stick to it. Wes and Mike also got iced coffees to suck down while we waited for our food to cook. It didn't take long before we were stuffing our faces! I was the last to finish eating (as usual). We moved on to the next booth where Wes got miso chicken and Mike got a beef bowl of some sort. I was still reeling from the tasty okonomiyaki and decided to hold off on more food for the time being.

As we wandered our way around the festival, things got more and more crowded. I took a lot of photos of cute kids, cute yukata and the crowd in general. Wes took a lot of photos of me, too:

This is what I wore. Mostly. You can't see my feet
or the stockings. You can see my parasol, which Wes
made fun of me for carrying, since it didn't rain.

Cosplayers gathered over in this corner throughout the day.

The scallops Wes got at one of the booths.

This was the line for the takoyaki booth. It was really long and we didn't brave it.

One of the booths that was preparing food. There were at least two or three in
the same Kikkoman uniforms.

Two of the lovely volunteers.

The crowds weren't very crowded when we first got
there. There were just a lot of lines.

Cute kids were dressed up, as were two cute dogs.

The owner asserted that they're very manly dogs. He entered them in the men's
yukata contest later int he afternoon.

Wes with miso chicken. And a miso pissed expression.

Random woman in Germanic costume, followed by a
guy with an accordion.

One of the volunteers (and a much smaller volunteer).

Wes really liked this guy's shirt.

There were a lot of cute couples!

I saw a lot of little girls in dresses very similar to
this one. They were really quite cute!

There were also many traditionally dressed
children around, too.

I loved her whole outfit!

And his hat!

"What do you think?!"

It started to get a bit more crowded as the day progressed!

The same two volunteers from before, this time
from the front (while on a break).

More and more people came pouring into the festival.

A one point, we spotted a group of teenagers who were a mix of cosplay and crazed fangirls/boys. While we were talking about them, I made a joke that one of the girls hit all the key points of crazy mall goth. She was wearing all black, massive chunky goth boots (in spite of being taller than the rest of the group already), spiky bracelets, an Invader Zim DOOM t-shirt, a Deathnote tote bag (complete with anime keychains, buttons and badges) and a ribbon bow in the middle of some rather stringy, limp hair.

Wes jokingly accused me of being elitist, but the truth of the matter is that I was suffering from a strange and twisted sort of nostalgia.

I mean, I never owned a wrap-around back MYTHwear bag with Priss Asagiri embroidered on it. And that bag definitely didn't have pins and badges from Weiss Kreuz, Tenchi Muyo or any other anime, either. Nor did I wear a leather collar with a bell on it through half of my time at Truman. Nor did I go to Anime Club meetings for seven hours every Friday and three hours every Sunday.

Noooo.

I was never a nerdylosergeekface like that chick. Not even a little bit.

In all seriousness, I probably did sound unintentionally critical in my remarks, but watching the group's antics did remind me quite a lot of the people I hung out with at Truman. Granted, we kept our wild behavior and (really bad) in-jokes mostly to ourselves, but there were definite parallels that I could spot between those teens and people I know.

I'd be lying if I tried to say we've all grown up since then, too, because I know we haven't. At least, not completely. We've just sort of learned when it is and isn't appropriate to scream, shriek and tackle strangers in public places.

In any case, we gave up on people watching to go for a bit of a wander. All kinds of silly antics followed:

Wes tried to retie my waist bow for me. He didn't do
a very good job, so I had to redo it myself.

Meanwhile, Mike was nice enough to hold my parasol for me.

In hindsight, he may have enjoyed it a bit too much.

"THIS is how you do it, Wes."

"Aren't I dainty? Tee hee?"
(No. Seriously. That's sarcasm.)

These kids were having a blast jumping from tier to tier of the fountain.

So Wes said "You try it!"

Funny how I used the parasol more for sun than for
rain, when it was supposed to be stormy all day.

"Should I jump in? No?"

Have to preserve my pale, goth-lolita skin. Or so Wes
has told me.

See? Pale like alabaster. Or something equally pale
and scary looking.

Mike finally got the drink he'd been craving all day! Hooray!

After we found water for Mike to drink, we continued on down the harbour looking at this and that. There were a lot of buskers about, including a fire juggler who was just finishing up his act, some guys who were doing various hip hop and break dancing, and a few musicians.

Apparently, the first one to offer him any money was his son.

We mostly ignored the buskers and chose instead to have a seat on the pier steps and relax for a little while in the sunlight. Quite a few other people were doing exactly the same thing, with and without books, so we were in pretty good company.

Mike and Wes picked out a very scenic location.

Some of our fellow sun-baskers.

A very gutsy little seagull.

Wes vs. Seagull -- FIGHT!

 

There are little trains that go around the harbour from different places.
This one was Aquarium-themed, with dugongs! Wes says that dugongs look
like something out of Narnia. Apparently it's the eyes.

This was a Lindt Cafe train!

At first, Wes thought the sign said "no breathing." Mike decided that this meant
that if you could hold your breath while filling out the paperwork, your boat
rental would be free of charge!

One of many water taxis flitting about the harbour and beyond.

Eventually, we decided that sitting much longer would likely result in sunburn or similar, so we got up and ventured back to the festival to make another go at the food stalls. We'd been eating on and off for about three hours by this point, but that certainly wasn't going to stop us from trying something else!

Along the way, I took yet more photos of the other festival-goers!

This lovely young lady was one of the volunteers and
spent a lot of her time on the stage announcing events
and translating.

It's Sharon! We didn't get to talk much because she
seemed like she was in a hurry and Mike and Wes
were leaving me behind in their rush to the food stalls.

I looooove her obi. The whole outfit was very classy,
but the gold and silver threads are just a great touch.

Dessert time! I think they were having sticky rice
and fruit, maybe?

The yaki-soba booth was very popular.

Yummmm.

On our way to eat, I ran into Rachel! I'd seen her walking
around and later got to talk to her, but grabbed her for a
quick photo before going to eat with Mike and Wes.

These three were the Dark Shadows, a local visual kei band who had performed
earlier in the day at the festival. They seemed a bit startled to be asked for a photo.

Tadaaaaa! The yaki-soba!

While we were eating, I spotted someone in a mint, Metamorphose yukata. Cming had warned that she would be dressing up in it for the festival ahead of time, so I was able to recognize her right away and stopped her for a chat. As soon as I said "by the way, I'm Kate!" she gasped and gave me a big old hug!

She was really sweet and both she and her sister were very cute in their yukata. I was glad to get to talk to them for a bit before they dove into the festival.

Yaaaay!

Mike and Phineas look on with benevolent expressions.

After Cming and her sister went off to find food of their own and meet with friends, Wes, Mike and I dug into our yaki-soba dishes. Don't mind our expressions. The noodles were awesome, they're just impossible to eat without making horrific (and photo-worthy) faces.

Soooo tasty ...

Really. Honestly.

... hey, you started it.

When we finished eating, we decided to see if we could find the Gelatissimo location on the harbour. Mike recommended them very highly and we thought that a nice, cool dessert would go down well after all the savory Japanese treats we'd been eating. Along the way, I snapped more photos (as if that's any surprise by now!):

Her yukata had really cute goldfish all over it!

I believe all three of these girls entered the yukata
contest. They were really cute!

I loved this couple's outfits. They both looked so nice
and looked great together!

Finally, at Gelatissimo, we were able to get something cool and refreshing to eat. Since we were already full, we really didn't eat all of what we ordered, but that's okay. We ate most of it, at least. All three of us got two-flavor scoop cups in medium. Mike got redbean and green tea, Wes got coconut and lychee and I got lychee and mango.

Wes enjoyed his coconut and lychee pretty well,
though he decided lychee and lemon would have been
a better choice.

My lychee and mango cup. Yuuuuum. It was
twice that size when I started out, too.

After we made our pilgrimage to Gelatissimo, Mike parted ways with us to head home, and Wes and I further explored the festival. We wandered around the festival and other parts of the harbour, as well.

By this point, the crowd around the stage had gotten fairly large!

As we were crossing the courtyard, these two women stopped me for a photo.
I was a little bit surprised by the request (and trying not to laugh at poor Wes,
strewn with two cameras at the same time). Apparently, they really liked my
dress/recognized the clothing I was wearing.

These two were just coming in as we were heading
out past the fountains.

They were so sweet and put up with me retaking the
photo a few times because people were walking around
in the background.

We found yet more cute dogs dressed up and out with their owners!

Sooo cuuuute.

For this photo, her owner actually stood behind me so that
I could get a clear shot of her face. Isn't she precious?

As we were walking, we quite suddenly discovered that there was a second culinary fete going on. Although it was a festival for Macau, there was food from many other countries as well. Portugal was a particular favorite; there were at least three booths serving Portuguese food.

Our guess is that the woman with her crazy Germanic get-up and the man with the accordion must have been performing there.

Questionable and vaguely racist "Chinese" dancing set to American pop music.
With fans. Yeah, I've got no idea what the hell was going on there.

These two were wandering around both festivals doing yo-yo tricks. It was pretty
impressive stuff!

View of the really nice fountain running the length
of the harbour's grounds.

Eventually, we headed back to the Japanese festival for more photos!

Seriously. Give me a camera and I'll be snap happy for days. It really is a never-ending cycle.

Yet more cute girls!

Preparing Wes' cold udon!

We arrived just in time for Wes to get some cold udon (they'd sold out earlier). Then, we found a spot to watch the yukata contests. There were so many cute ensembles!

The men's competition was the most varied in terms of styles.

The spectators were pretty well-dressed, too!

The women's group was the largest, with 21 competitors!

Everyone looked so beautiful!

The kids were the all adorable, but sadly hard to get photos of because of
the size of the crowd.

The women's runner up!

And the winner of the women's competition!

Before announcing the winner of the men's contest, the judge in charge of saying
who had won went up and down the line, standing in front of each of the men.

When he finally announced the winner, the crowd was very pleased!

The men's competition winner was a bit of a pleasant surprise!

When asked where he was from, he boldly proclaimed himself as being from Kogarah. The other young men in the competition were from Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka ... and Brisbane (it's better than Melbourne according to the hostess of the competition; I half-hoped that one of the competitors would say that was where he was from when she'd said that). The gentleman said that he had entered the competition for fun and for his wife's sake. She had apparently dressed him up for the day and he wanted to show off her hard work. I thought she did rather a nice job when I saw them together earlier; the judges must have agreed!

One last photo from the festival!

Eventually, we'd had our fill of food and festivities and Wes offered to show me the grandest views you can get while in the city, at the top of the Sydney Tower Eye!