Nisei Week: Easy, Breezy, Japanesey

Please stop banging those Taiko drums…

When you’re nursing a Sunday morning “headache”, it’s definitely not the most welcome sound outside your window.  This, however, only reminded me that Little Tokyo’s annual Japanese-American celebration, Nisei Week, has snuck up on me.

For those that missed it over the weekend, there was a two-hour parade through Little Tokyo on Sunday evening.  It featured a ton of floats, traditional dance, taiko drumming, anime characters, and the lovely nisei-week court.  The crowd was great and the atmosphere was very fun and inviting.  It definitely reminded me of my summer days in Japan and attending these matsuri’s (summer festivals).

Nisei Week is a whole weeklong celebration of Japanese culture and Japanese-American community residing in Southern California.  There will be other events such as traditional dance practice and other cultural events (including a rubik’s cube contest, for some reason).  The noteworthy highlight of the week for food fanatics to enjoy will be the Gyoza eating competition featuring headliner competitive eater Joey Chestnut.

This Saturday afternoon you can spot “Jaws” try to take down his record set last year with 231 gyozas eaten in 10 minutes.  He tells Downtown News that he’s trying for 250 this year!  Will he do it?  I’m totally eager to see him try.  Pride of San Jose right there.

I’m just hoping there won’t be an encore of Taiko drums early in the morning.

Nisei Week Japanese Festival
August 15-23, 2009