Teikyo Festival

Had a great time this morning at the ‘Teikyo Festival’ of Japanese culture which was put on by Teikyo University of Japan in Durham (held in the ‘Lafcadio Hearn Cultural Centre’) –

Teikyo Festival
Kimono wearing

After arriving at about 10:30 am everyone was given a program of events which could be visited throughout the day – there was a wide range of stuff you could do and see including traditional games, origami, tea ceremony, kimono wearing (for girls), calligraphy, martial arts and music.

Teikyo Festival
Tea ceremony

One of the highlights was being able to watch a traditional tea ceremony which is a ritual way of preparing and drinking tea – mostly done as a hobby by people today (apparently). Basically, the tea is first prepared by the host, and then drunken by the guests. The tea was a bitter matcha green tea made of powdered tea leaves – almost clear in colour, nothing like you’d normally drink over here. I don’t usually like or drink tea but I thought I’d give it a go – it was surprisingly nice!

Teikyo Festival
Origami crane

Dotted about the place were hundreds, if not thousands of tiny origami models, some plain whilst others were made out of brightly decorated paper. The Japanese attention to detail is incredible, the students had obviously put a lot of work into putting the festival on – no wonder they’re top of the electronics manufacturing game!

Teikyo Festival
Kendo

Another highlight was the Kendo (a martial art) demonstration. Here two surprisingly aggressive girls dressed up in full protective gear and proceeded to bash the living daylights out of each other with long sticks! I managed to get some great pictures and even a cool video.

Teikyo Festival
Food time!

After this, we got some food (Japanese noodles with pork & cabbage) and I had my first experience of using chopsticks which were slightly tricky at first but I soon got used to it. The food tasted good and I managed not to make a fool of myself with the chopsticks!

Teikyo Festival
Little person

I ended up snapping 170 pictures – all-in-all a very successful and enjoyable morning 🙂

David avatar

2 responses

  1. helen avatar
    helen

    Hey, sorry for the sudden message ^^ I just found your website thing. I was there, and I enjoyed myself soooo much! I was meaning to take pictures, but forgot my camera. Your pictures are amazing, I saved two I hope you don't mind… And you know the dude in the 'making noodles' pic? I think he's the one who did japanese lessons, and if so then he is called Koichi. We talked and then he would greet me and my friends. By the way, is this in 2005?.. I just don't want to be confused… There was the 'Soran Bushi' traditional dance as well which I loved. Too bad you haven't got pictures of that here, because your galery and album don't open for some reason. Anyway, well done on that. I've been meaning to find some info about the festival for weeks now.. thank you, you helped a lot. If it's not too much hastle maybe you could write, I would love to talk about it. Thanks again (^_^)

  2. Helen avatar
    Helen

    Hello! I'm sorry for a sudden .. message thing, but I've been to that Festival the same time as you and I had such an incredible time!!! None of my friends, or me, took a camera, so we had absolutely zilch photos but the memory of it is incredible. I am sooo glad I found this, I praise you for it, thank you sooo much. I remember the guy in your cooking photo in the white – he did japanese lessons with us, he was called Koichi. You gallery and album don't work sadly, but if you have the time can you please PLEASE write to me about it, I am dying to talk to someone about it. I've been trying to find something, ANYTHING connected with it ever since I got back. You pictures are incredible. Did you get some from the 'Soran Bushi' traditional dance? I lovd that so much. Thank you for reading ^^ and just tank you.

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