They Are Not Real Ninjas!

On the 15th October a pretty big Japanese festival (aka: Japantag) took place in Düsseldorf.

To tell the truth, I expected a lot more from this festival. The whole idea and events sounded really really nice, but in fact I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Well, first of all, there were hell too many people. I swear, most of them were simply breathing and doing nothing major aside from standing there and taking too much place. Of course, I'm not saying you should shot all those extras who have no real function in life, but I really don't get why this festival became an otaku event.

Well, fine, it leads me to the next thing I didn't like -- it's a hell JAPANESE festival... not anima con. HELL -- there were almost no people who were not dressed up like they are in some third rated anima con... and annoyed the hell out of me.

Yes, anima is indeed a big tradition and cultural element but it's far from being the only thing in the japanese culture, and it made me really sad that people didn't get it after such a long time.

Now, basically, the event itself was pretty neat... but I wont say well organized. The workshops were randomly put around the area and the map (*cough*) was as exact as my mom trying to tell a story. Trying to search for workshops was one of the most annoying thing I could think of (so I didn't do it. Which is a huge hole in my Japantag experience).

As there was no train I noticed (as far as I remember we found one doing half the way to the coast) that took us to the river... so we had to walk all the way. The good thing was though, that some random Japanese people put their stands there... and I could happily buy things when I got 1/4 the way.

The stands on the coast however were really crowded. I remember I couldn't enter some because they were filled with people who (again) simply stood there and did nothing with themselves. I hardly found things to buy through the crowd and didn't want to waste other people's time myself (so I looked around a bit and went away, like many many people should have done x.x. Trolls).

Putting the tables 10 cm backwards could be a good solution (considering the fact you couldn't WALK x.x because of all the people).

At least I bought new things and enjoyed some good food... heard drums and pretended to be pretty (singing songs in the train, street, station, hotel, wherever :P).

If you saw a weird person singing 'the internet is for porn' along the way -- it was me. XD

There were 2 good parts I really liked. The first one (surprisingly involving cosplay) was ninjas. Ya, you heard correct -- ninjas. There were some lame guys in ninja cosplay (not naruto... just ninjas) and I COULD SEE THEM. My first thought was "They are not real ninjas" you can't hell see them.

The second, involving the festival itself were the wonderful fireworks. I generally really like them, especially when they are pretty. I expected some sailor moon firework at the end, but the super huge one that colored all the sky yellow was really pretty as well.

Enjoyed, but not sure I'll go there next year. Was a nice experience anyway! ^_^ (we had an awesome hotel btw!).