Gamertell

San Francisco’s little niche known as Japan Town celebrated its 42nd annual Cherry Blossom Festival that ended with its highly anticipated grand parade on April 19, 2009.

This event usually spans for two weeks in mid-April when the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom. Hordes of people come together to partake in an abundance of ethnic foods, activities, and contests. This year’s celebration welcomed Star Trek veteran and community activist George Takei (aka Mr. Sulu) as its Grand Marshall.

There were many different performances that entertained the masses on stage at Japan Town’s Peace Pavilion including taiko drummers, martial artists, Japanese classical dance artists and sword specialists.

Let’s not forget that from Japanese culture stemmed the popularity of anime and manga and therefore those persons who idolize those nuances.

Yes, you know where I am going with this.

Cosplayers.

Since 1999, Japan Town’s local and flourishing video rental place, aptly named Japan Video, has been sponsoring the Cherry Blossom Festival cosplay contest. This year mustered up a whopping 200 attendees who vied for the position of grand prize winner.

Participants congregated in front of San Francisco’s City Hall at 10 a.m. on Sunday (April 19, 2009) where judges would deem those worthy of receiving coveted prizes. Participants are promised gifts and goodies but neither they nor I know exactly what’s at stake until the very last minute (and remain a mystery to me even now). All participants were invited to march in the grand parade while the winners of the competition were featured on a motorized float.

The First Place st place prize of this year’s contest went to a meticulously crafted Midna and wolf Link (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) costume (and I hope they were smart enough to incorporate an internal cooling system). I certainly felt sorry for whomever volunteered or was forced to wear that wolf costume because the heat of the sun certainly was relentless that day.

After the announcement of all the winners on stage were complete, cosplay attendees were invited to participate in the cosplay talent show that was chock full of otaku goodness that included middle school girls dressed as characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya who performed coreogaphy from the anime’s musical sequences to fan portrayals of popular J-pop/anime songs.

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NOTE: All pictures by Janine Dong.