Bon Odori 2008

"The Bon Festival is a Japanese Buddhist custom which is held annually to honour the deceased spirits of one's ancestors. It is meant to be a joyful celebration, bringing families together, and celebrating rather than mourning the lives of the dearly departed.The Bon Odori Festival has been a fixture here in Malaysia for the last 30 odd years, and is more a festival of Japanese culture, with Japanese dances - including the traditional Bon Odori, danced specially for this occassion - music, food and lots more, presented throughout the evening."

Venue :
Matsushita Stadium, Shah AlamPanasonic Sports Complex (formerly Matsushita Centre)Lot 4, Persiaran Perkilangan, Seksyen 21Shah Alam,Selangor

Date & Time :
Sat 12 Jul 2008 (7pm onwards)

Tickets :
Free Admission

Have a taste of Japanese Culture;

• Music & Dancing
• Food & Delicacies
• Taiko Drum Performance
• Traditional Costumes & Dressing

-Source:undisclosed

Alright, that's some information about this annual event for publisity purpose. This year, I joined this event with my coursemates.It was still early when we reached there..

It was very thoughtful of the organizing committee as they prepared sufficient number of toilets to avoid long queqes.

Not only that, you'll get to choose whether you want to ...

Sit, or...

...squat when you do your business. I absolutely love this part of the event. Hehe..

And for smokers, even a smoking area was allocated. Havent seen this in any other events before.

So, "Food and Delicacies" huh? You bet. You'll see stalls selling Japanese food here. The problem is, they are all obviously catered from Sushi King, Isetan and Jusco. I don't see any point why I should come here to experience Japanese food and delicacies. Sushi King, Isetan and Jusco can be seen all over Selangor.

Luckily, there are still some freebies and cheap snacks.

About "Traditional Costumes and Dressings", - Yes. Little children like these will be the celebrities of the night. People will be hording around them to snap photos of them in their cute traditional outfits.

And at 7.05pm, (5 minutes behind the schedule time), the event started with the less than 2 minute "Taiko Drum Performance". Only 5 minutes late - consider very punctual already in Malaysia.As for "Music and Dancing" it was really traditional, easy-to-follow, simple and slow dance steps. Very effective for de-stressing.Apparently, it was much better last year. We left Bon O-Boring before 9p.m. Not a bad experience, but once is enough.