I was invited to the biggest Japanese cultural event in the UK at Olympia London this weekend and not knowing a lot about Japanese culture it was quite an eye opener.
I got to see some traditional martial arts which being into my martial arts was the highlight for me, but I also got a taste for all things Japanese.
There was some incredible anime and manga from artwork to T-shirts to toys and there was even a gaming section where you could battle it out with your favourite Dragon ball characters amongst others.
The food hall was incredible with a huge range of Japanese cuisine of which my companions tucked in heartily to dishes of coated prawns and Octopus balls (I wasn’t so brave) but did enjoy some tasty vegetarian dumplings and rice with curry sauce.
Heaps of people were dressed up as their favourite anime characters and the sea of pink, blue and orange hair was a fun sight.
Kimono’s were for sale along with illuminous teddy bear lama’s and other cute cuddly toys, you simply wanted to snatch up everything.
On the open stage Japanese pop and rock bands took it in turns to wow the crowd and bring the energy up high.
There was opportunity to talk about traveling around Japan if you were planning to make that once in a life time trip but if you were not ready for that then you could simply chill out and do some Japanese arts and crafts origami style.
Check it out yourself next time it comes around!