Bon Odori Shah Alam 2012

An really overdue post since Bon Odori was held 2 months ago, and now I just have time to blog my outing there. "Bon Odori" simply means "Bon" dance, a Japanese traditional festival to honor the ancestor spirit. I had never been to Bon Odori before although always heard of it since my secondary school, main reason was no companion or mum just didn't allow me to go. This year, the event was held at Shah Alam Matsushita Stadium on 14 July 2012, and I and darling decided to go for our first time, and probably the last time. 

We reached the place at around 5pm just to find a good location for parking. We parked at TNB and walked for 5 minutes to reach the stadium. We thought we were early but indeed there was full with crowd already. 

We never knew Malaysia has many Japanese until we were here for the Bon Odori event

Grabbed a free Japanese fan at the entrance

Saw people selling Koinoburi (a carp-shaped wind socks) here, quite pretty but I did not buy, so don't know how much it is

Saw a lot of girls wearing Yukata, even though they are not Japanese, quite impressive~

A big attraction of Bon Odori to me was the food, so once we arrived we just stroll to the food stalls without a minute of thinking.

Besides Japanese food, there were also Malays selling burger, nuggets, rojak and etc. Spotted wine and edamame in this stall, not sure whether the girl was preparing free sample or not, we just didn't go near because price was not cheap~

Sushi King offering a plate of sushi for RM5~!

Had my first try of Mister donut since many people seem fancy on it~

Of course not to miss out my favorite veggie all the time - mushroom~ Still there are many stalls selling mainly Japanese foods including Japanese ice cream, Japanese beverages, bento, grill food, onigiri, sushi, noodles, etc etc. Food choices were wide but price was quite high here. 

After bought our dinner, we walked to find some place that can have our dinner comfortably. On the way, passing through the main stage.

Managed to find a good place to have our dinner, windy and has many seats. Many people did not notice the stadium inside or thought the place only for authorized people because actually got many guards standing outside on first floor. We were lucky to walk further into second floor and found here~ 

While eating, got free show entertained us some more, watching they did last rehearsal for the event

Mashed potato topped with black pepper mushroom, okay not bad, but cannot remember how much it is

Our Japanese pizza Ikayaki (RM6), made with egg, cuttlefish, Japanese fish soup and seaweed. Not nice at all as the texture is very hard and chewy. Squid is overcooked but the sauce tastes not bad.

Tori Mantao (RM8) from Sakae stall. This is very nice and tasty, best food of the day! Meat is tender in yummy sauce, while Mantao is soft and fluffy~ 

Then we moved out from the indoor stadium to the main stage area and picnic for second round when outside had become more happening and noisier, just not to miss out any performance. Ring donuts taste okay and nothing to shout about but the green tea muffin is a big no-no. It is too moist and sticky, and very sweet and oily too. Same thing goes to chocolate muffin but chocolate muffin taste is not as bad as the green tea one, and sweetness is at acceptable level. We really had a hard time to finish the green tea muffin, can you imagine how disgusting it is? 

Unagi Bento (RM10) 

Japanese performer getting ready for the night 

Event began with loud attacking drum sound and bon dance

People enjoyed participated in and danced together, while we chose to watch them dance

As night getting darker, the place was more crowded as more people join in for dancing. While we even moved to higher place to enjoy the show. We just don't like to squeeze with the crowd.

I guess I will suffocate if I stayed inside the sea of people



Cultural dance part 1



Cultural dance part 2



Cultural dance part 3



1 Malaysia drum performance



Chinese and Malay drum performance were not as spectacular as the Indian drum performance, they are funny and more lively



Highlight of the night~ Japanese drum performance had successfully brought up the heat of atmosphere!



Fusion of all drum performance

While we left, we noticed a stall selling Japanese merchandise, people can buy Yukata there too~ 

We did not stay until the whole event finished as we were quite tired already, and we found the event quite boring too. There was one more performance but we were not managed to wait until the end because after the drum session, the event continued with Bon dancing again then speech by don't know which big gun. This is my first time to Bon Odori, and will be my last time too. I did not really enjoy this event and not really found it interesting. However, if there is a chance to join Bon Odori Penang, I will go again because Penang one has fireworks at the end of the event. Bon Odori Shah Alam cannot make fireworks and I guess the reason is many airplanes actually fly overhead the event place. 

Looking forward for fireworks next time.