Thanks to everyone who joined us to celebrate the New Year & the Year of the Snake!
Over 2,800 came throughout the day for our 2013 Oshogatsu Family Festival on Sunday, January 6th to enjoy free crafts, performances & food.
Thanks so much to our volunteer photographers who captured all the fun—Caroline Jung, Russell Kitagawa, Daryl Kobayashi, Richard Murakami, and Tsuneo Takasugi.
Here’s a selection of the many, many photos they took to document the day!
(Click on the images to see the full photos)
Multigenerational family fun at Oshogatsu Family Festival
Having fun with zodiac animal & snake crafts
Cute girl & her paper snake
Decorating her animal zodiac wreath
A family pose proudly with their paper snakes
A very focused little girl…coloring is serious business!
Families having fun together with crafts
It was great to see so many extended families celebrating the New Year at JANM!
The Omikuji ladies with fortunes & wishes for the New Year!
Selecting a lucky wish from the box
Ever resourceful, our Christmas tree became our Omikuji Wish Tree for the day!
Ruthie Kitagawa & her assistants taught visitors how to fold origami snakes
Learning how to fold origami snakes
Lots of smiling faces to be seen all day!
Zaru soba noodles with Kidding Around the Kitchen. Yum!
Chowing down on zaru soba noodles!
Varied reactions from these girls, but the zaru soba is not only healthy, but a lucky dish too!
Shaun Ichiyanagi, the “Candyman,” wowed the crowds as he made snake & other sculpture candy.
Lots of lucky kids were able to win candy sculptures to take home
A family shows off their candy sculptures
JANM Volunteer Bob Moriguchi with Shaun the Candyman and his reward for being his assistant for the day!
Wonder what was so surprising? Was he amazed by Shaun the Candyman?
A boy assists Sonoko Sakai by fanning the sushi rice for the rice tasting sponsored by Common Grains & JRE
Young ones taking a break from the crafts and activities with some play time in the Toddler Room
Face painting was another popular activity
Some opted to get their animals painted on their arms
Sandee Hashimoto took a break from volunteering to pose with her family
Hal Keimi is a long-time JANM volunteer who leads interactive taiko demonstrations for school tours throughout the year. He led 2 taiko sessions at Oshogatsu Family Festival
Hands-on taiko lessons!
Playing the taiko with a little help
Watching little kids have fun with taiko
A future taiko master?
Kodama Taiko did two Mochitsuki performances & demonstrations
Kodama Taiko’s very energetic & entertaining Mochitsuki performance
Kids got to try pounding mochi too!
Pounding mochi with the kine (wooden mallet)
Yoisho!
Reptacular Animals were on hand with a reptile petting zoo!
This boy doesn’t look too sure about the snake
There were also assorted lizards on hand
Tortoises too!
Sonoko Sakai with Suzy Nakamura, one of the Onigiri Design Contest winners
For more Oshogatsu Family Festival photos, including from the Onigiri Design Contest, check out our photo album on our JANM Facebook page >>
Communications Production Manager at the Japanese American National Museum. I coordinate printed publications, manage web-based projects, and lots of other stuff. I also write an occasional column for our DiscoverNikkei.org project.
