Have you been wondering why there was so much traffic and people heading to Anaheim @thegardenwalk on June 16th and 17th? There was a huge turnout for the @tasteofjpn Festival! However, the roads were still clogged at 8 p.m. on Saturday, when it was done on Saturday night at 9 p.m.
The Taste of Japan Festival is a festival by Tanoshii Project Inc., in collaboration with GardenWalk & their management company, STC. The goal was to showcase and promote Japanese culture to the general public through authentic cuisine, pop culture, cosplay of anime & manga series, merchandise vendors, entertainment stage, activities, and more! The festival was on Friday, June 16th, and Saturday, June 17th, 2023.
This also boosted business for the stores and restaurants of GardenWalk as festival attendees look at the regular and eat at the restaurants if the lines for the festival vendors were too long or out of food. The GardenWalk walkways in the shopping center are as wide as a usual mall walkway. However, the festival vendors were right in the middle and side, which clogged up the walkways, so everyone had to pack their patients while going around the mall. There were 24 food vendors & 50 merchants, including the Los Angeles Angels promoting Japanese heritage night with a cutout of Shohei Ohtani. None of the vendors were of interest as video game merchandise, primarily, Nintendo was far and in between.
On stage, they had entertainers throughout the day for singing and dance performances, and a cosplay contest. When I was there watching the contest, I took a picture of a guy on stage dressed as Naruto’s dad.
When I was there at 5 p.m. on Saturday, most of the food vendors were either sold out of food or had long lines in a crowded plaza. So I decided to go to the Poke Garden, a Poke restaurant at the GardenWalk, which still had a huge line, but I would not be stuck in a huge line in a crowded plaza.
The Taste of Japan Festival was a success it attracted many people to the GardenWalk to learn about and appreciate Japanese culture.
Check out my Instagram post below for pictures from the festival. Thank you for reading!
AntSol Travel 
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