A slightly more "authentic" experience in Yoyogi

Back at Yoyogi Park for another cultural festival today: "Namaste India".

I knew to expect a larger one than the Peruvian, Mexican, and Tahitian festivals I'd been to this month, but it was even bigger than I'd imagined.

Indian food as far as the eye could see...

 

I spent quite a while just walking around taking pictures of different dishes before I found some lunch for myself. If you read my post from last week, you'll understand what I mean when I say it was nice to see that a fair amount of the food was prepared by *actual* Indian people.

Do I spy "Indian" nachos?

Making naan.

Chicken tikka

Samosas and biryani

"Green chicken tikka"...I never found out what make it that color.

Eventually I hunted down some chana masala, a spicy, dry curry made with chickpeas.  Delish! (This one wasn't such a "dry" curry though...)

I also thought I'd try at least one food I hadn't had before. (This is me being adventurous...) So I settled on jalebi, deep-fried wheat batter covered in a sugary syrup.  Too sweet for me to eat all of it, but I enjoyed watching the preparation process.

Squeezing batter into hot oil in a swirly-pretzely shape

Cooling off...

The final product

After lunch I walked through rows and rows of tents full of souvenirs.

Quite a selection of sari

"This is nice, try it!!"

I had to practice some serious self-control in order to make it home without one of these beautifully painted ornaments

And a few other interesting things to admire...

After a while, I grabbed a cup of hot chai and headed over to the performance stage.

But just in case I had forgotten that this event was taking place in Japan, one look at the performances brought me back to reality.

After all, what Indian festival would be complete without some traditional Japanese drumming?

The poster of the Taj Mahal makes it work, don't you think?

And for dancing, much like the "Tahitian" dancers I saw last week, most of the performers were Japanese.  I saw bits of six different acts, and in only two of them was there at least one Indian person.

Japanese people...

The woman in the center was the Indian dance instructor.  The rest of her group? From Hong Kong.

Oh, well...

Japanese sweets for birthday treats

What's inside my little green box?

Why, it's cute little wagashi (Japanese confectionery)!  These are often served with green tea as part of a traditional tea ceremony...but I scarfed a couple of them rather "unceremoniously".

Not to worry, though. I made sure to document the beautiful autumn-themed sweets well before they disappeared:

The Japanese do wonders with a little bit of pounded rice, sweet bean paste, sugar, chestnuts, and green tea powder, don't they?

Many thanks to @LikesBlueBoots for the very pretty gift!

An "authentic" experience in Odaiba

What a beautiful afternoon for another trip to Odaiba!

The sky was blue today, so I got to update my skyline photos from the grey-sky shots I got last month...

Tokyo Sky Tree is just to the left of the cranes

It's hard to get tired of this view...

 
My goal was the Fiesta Mexicana at Aqua City.  I've spent the last month looking forward to Mexican food, so I was pleased to see all the stalls set up.

This is Japanese + Mexican food.  It's a Japanese dish (okonomiyaki), topped with jalapeños.

Unfortunately, Japanese people have a different concept of "Mexican food", so it was a little difficult to find my favorites. But I can't complain about my quesadillas with jalapeños...

I bought my "Mexican" quesadillas at the Brooklyn Diner.

They were freshly prepared...by Japanese people.

The final product.  Nice and toasty.

As you can see, it wasn't quite as authentic as I'd hoped. ;)

After lunch I enjoyed looking at all the different stalls selling "Mexican" products.

 

I picked up a Y100 bracelet for myself.
These Mexican products look suspiciously similar to the friendship bracelets I used to make in middle school...

At least the dancer was from Mexico. Although the rest of the three-person group was Japanese...

I never caught the name of this dance- it was something akin to a tap dance.

Moving on, I realized that there were plenty of other interesting things to see in Odaiba today, too.

"For the people in love with the sea"

Another glimpse of the "Flame of Liberty"

There was also an enormous "meat festival" being held. To impress us with their skills (and make us hungry?)
they took a photo of raw beef and made it look like earth. I passed on this one.

A few minutes' walk from the Mexican festival, a Tahitian festival was also being held.  It was equally authentic. For example, at one of the food carts they advertised Tahitian-style nachos. (Maybe the event planners had a little mix-up between the two festivals?)

The dancers were beautiful.  And, you guessed it...(mostly) Japanese.

After a day of so much authenticity, I think I'll go enjoy some real Japanese food.  And follow it up with a couple of Oreos...