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This past weekend (July 30/31st) I was invited to represent InsideJapan Tours at the annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival is Colorado‘s largest Asian orientated event, and attracts close to 100 000 people. As the name suggests, the main focus are the spectacular boat races that take place just off shore on the idyllic Sloan’s Lake waters. There were also a great number of stalls selling a variety of goods and tasty foods from across Asia. The many visitors were kept further entertained at the various performance stages showing such diverse activities as taiko drumming, kick-boxing, shakuhachi, doll making, and break dancing!
The IJT stand formed part of the ‘Gateway to Asia’ tent. Normally shared by a couple of destinations, this year it was completely taken over by Japan, and I rubbed shoulders with the Japan America Society of Colorado, the Denver Buddhist Temple, the Japanese Association of Colorado and Denver Bonsai. Our tent proved very popular, partly because of our great decorations and displays, and partly because of the free iced green tea and mugicha (barley tea), which proved a godsend as temperatures approached 100 F (38 C)!
I enjoyed talking with all of the people who took time to stop by, and hope to be helping them explore the beauties of Japan soon!
