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One thing about volunteering as a translator for a festival is that you don’t get to see much of the festival yourself. It doesn’t bother me too much as there are literally tens of thousands of spectators and performances are hard to see without any prep. Friday there were more than 85,000 people and on Saturday 65,000! Today is the final day so who knows how many will come. Daidogei has truly become a huge festival with people coming from all over Japan and even from overseas.

But…while performances get harder to see there is always the food. Last year’s beloved Nathans is not here but on the second day a new favorite was found.

Nomado Coffee Car

Since the second day of the festival, my breakfast has consisted of their coffee and chocolate muffin. Lots of rich, dark chocolate…yum!! The photo above also has their baked pudding which is not quite as sinful as the muffin but real good.

As it is the last day, I’ll try to break away from just food and get a photo of a performance…but there is this great gyro place…..

food! Of course, one of the first stops on any outing to the Daidogei festival is the World Caravan. A collection of food stalls selling food from around the world…Chinese, Thai, Russian, Korean and more…Oh, mustn’t forget the Gyros!

My first taste of the global tour is Chinese gyoza.

Though, the stall I was looking most forward to is not here..Nathans Hot Dogs. A daily staple at last year’s festival, the big yellow parasol is sorely missed.

Another year has flown by and I am again volunteering for one of Shizuoka’s largest festivals – Daidogei World Cup in Shizuoka. A street performance art festival, it brings in perfomers from around the world.

Let’s see if I can keep updating the blog about this festival which runs from Nov. 2 – 5th. Reports about the festival in English can also be read on the festival’s website. (click the logo below)