One Love Jamaica Festival

I woke up this morning and smiled to the rising sun. Three little birds were pitched by my doorstep singing a sweet song, the melody was pure and true. Saying, go to the One Love Jamaica Festival in Yoyogi park today. So I did.

It was an absolutely lovely day in Tokyo. I find myself saying this a lot in my blog posts but the days here are truly beautiful. The sky is typically blue and clear with some clouds and a temperature of about 77 degrees. Today was no exception and so it was a perfect day to hit Yoyogi park.

Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, Japan located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. What is now Yoyogi Park was the site of the first successful powered aircraft flight in Japan, on December 19, 1910, by Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa, after which it became an army parade ground. During the post World War II occupation, it was the site of the Washington Heights residence for U.S. officers. It was later the site for the main Olympic athletes village of the 1964 Summer Olympics and the swimming, diving, and basketball venues. The distinctive Yoyogi National Gymnasium which hosted swimming, diving, and basketball was designed by Kenzo Tange for the Olympics, and is still in use, but most of the area north of the gymnasium complex and south of Meiji Shrine was turned into a city park in 1967.

Yoyogi is about a 25 minute walk from my apartment or a short 7 minute taxi ride. Since I didn't want to tire myself out before I got to the park I decided to take a cab and save my walking for the park. Today was the annual One Love Jamaica Festival which takes place in a huge parking lot at the side of the park. I've heard a lot about the festival and it's popular among Caribbean people living in Tokyo. I was certainly looking forward to experiencing it for myself. Luckily I had my HD recorder with me so I was able to capture some great video along with images. And since video is better than words I'll leave you with the video and a few thoughts.

This was the highlight of the festival for me and I couldn't stop laughing. The Japanese were truly entertained, though I think maybe for the same reasons as I was.




This stall had it all, and the name says it all too. :-)







Walking around the festival to give you a sense of the layout. This was some kinda ethnic dancing, though completely unrecognizable to me.






In summary the festival wasn't as big as I had imagine though it was certainly not small. I was also expecting more authenticity in the food, music, and arts but looking back it seems like too much to ask for in Tokyo. I enjoyed it, but if I had to grade the festival I'll give it a B. It's worth going to, but it's not something I'll go to every year. Here are a few pictures to end this post.

Labels: Events, Tokyo