People-Watching at the Japanese Festival

The people-watching at the Japanese festival was unexpectedly rewarding. The place was just crammed with people of all description, most of them wearing traditional Midwestern summer garb, but some splashing out a bit with Japan-flavored outfits or items. The best outfits deserve a post of their own, though, so come back on Wedesday to check that out.

Umbrellas were quite popular.

So were fans.

These pointy hats were everywhere. I think of them as Chinese coolie hats -- what manual laborers wear to keep the sun off. So it was funny to see them on so many well-fed Midwestern kids.

It was also possible to spot the occasional actual Japanese person wearing traditional Japanese garb.


It's a little hard to see, but this lady is wearing geta -- wooden flip-flops that have you up on two vertical chunks of wood per foot. That means she's almost certainly wearing tabi, the heavy socks with a split that puts the big toe off on its own. It was about 85 degrees and humid that day, too, so between the footwear, kimono and obi, I'm sure she was really toasty.

What was in the Package

Saree Dreams

While I was researching yesterday’s post, I came across the online equivalent of a fun-n-frothy Easter treat: a blog about saris. The main poster is a designer living in LA, but there are five other contributors and the content is delightfully wide-ranging. Apparently it’s possible to earn a degree in sari tying, there is a Saree Dreams Twitter channel (#Saree), and saris were banned in Pakistan for quite some time but are currently trendy there.

My favorite post so far is this one, because never in a million years did I think I’d see a woman in a sari playing volleyball. The one showing a leather belt over a sari is a real head-scratcher, and then there’s the one that's only about saris in that it involves people who wear them in Los Angeles.

There’s been a surge in the Bangladeshi population in an area that’s home to roughly 50,000 Korean-Americans and is commonly known as Koreatown. Last October, however, an application to rename the area Little Bangladesh was filed. That’s not sitting well with the Korean residents, who have filed a similar application to name part of the area Koreatown.

This excerpt from the New York Times article about the conflict between the two groups sums up a sentiment I’m used to hearing about when worthy but unseemly projects are proposed in wealthy neighborhoods:

“It’s nice to embrace other communities,” said Brad Lee, a member of the Koreatown neighborhood council’s board, “as long as it’s not in our backyard. Or in our front yard.”

I'm not sure if that comment should be filed under racism, xenophobia or just plain fear, but it just floored me.