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.