Japanese Day Festival in Le Vigan

Yesterday, Sunday the 9th, was the big Japanese Festival event. This is part of a project in the Occitanie region and is being held in towns other than Le Vigan as well.
This was the first Japanese Festival in Le Vigan. It was held at the Cevenol Museum.
I was worried about the weather, but it was clear and sunny, which was great!

Five Japanese women living in Le Vigan worked hard on this.
I was in charge of preparing lunch, the calligraphy workshop, and the matcha demonstration.
I was surprised by the huge crowd from the morning.

Furoshiki was popular, too—I wanted to participate as well.

Origami was also very popular with the children.

Lunch was held in the square in front of the museum; it was great that the weather was nice! It was a bit complicated with full reservations and some cancellations, but in the end, we managed everything!
The menu included chestnut rice, karaage (fried chicken), dashimaki tamago, carrot shirishiri, Chinese-style broccoli salad, and sweet potatoes with butter and soy sauce. The karaage was a huge hit with the kids, and they even asked for seconds.

It felt like a picnic, and it was pleasant; this time, everyone was able to eat at a leisurely pace.

The calligraphy session in the afternoon was non-stop and very busy, and the kimono were also very popular.

The first matcha ceremony was also popular, limited to 20 people by reservation. We had to quickly show a video on a friend's laptop. The daifuku mochi was also well-received, and we even got orders for it!

In any case, it was bustling until the evening, which was amazing.

We were happy to hear from many children and parents that they enjoyed it and wanted us to hold it every year.

We were all involved in the project from the beginning, and the preparations were tough, but I'm glad it was a success.
There are various challenges, but I hope we can make it an even better project next year.