All photos were shot with Canon EOS 30 camera with the Canon EF 35-135mm f/4-5.6 USM and Sigma AF Super Wide II 24mm F2.8 lenses on Kodak Colorplus 200 film. (Cover image was shot handheld with Tamron 28-300(!)mm lens @ 300mm).
Yoyogi park, 15:26
The 15th Indonesia-Japan festival was held on the 14th to 15th of October nearby Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Yoyogi Park is a huge, lovely green park with many wide, open areas, big trees and street performers. I struggled to find the location of the festival, as it was on the other side of Yogogi Park Street, at the Yoyogi Event Plaza (代々木公園 イベント広場).
The amphitheatre, which served as the stage for the event, has a very cool design, reminiscent of (in my opinion :D) a popular cake, Baumkuchen.
It was already late afternoon when I got there, so there was only about an hour of sunlight left. I met up with Johnny and couple of his friends, whom I had not met in person. He borrowed me some lenses, nice wide Sigma 24mm and a junk Tamron 28-300mm, so you could say the focal lengths were definitely well covered. 😁 I also had a small flash, as I knew it was going to get dark really soon. We still managed to catch some dance and music performances, which were nice and brought me straight into the festival mood.
Exploring Indonesian food and culture
I have tried some Indonesian food before in Finland, but overall I am not very familiar with the cuisine or culture. Mostly my exposure comes through an Indonesian friend of mine, who also happens to run a photography related blog, which I recommend to check out if you're into lens reviews or travel tips in Japan.
The lines to the food stalls were very long, so it was quite hard to get any food. But eventually we got there, and got to taste some (sadly not that great 😅) food. Maybe we picked the wrong line.
Then, of course, there's always time for a coffee break. I have had Indonesian coffee once before at a coffee festival in Helsinki, and I remember it was very good. Luckily there was a coffee stand serving Indonesian hot or cold coffee and latte.
Time to party!
As the day progressed, the festival got even livelier. People were gathering at the stage, this time for some pop music. At first, most people kept their distance to the stage, but it only took one or two brave ones to get closer and start dancing, and soon many others followed.
The music was quite poppy and catchy. I didn't know any of the songs, but the audience was singing along with great passion.
Overall I really enjoyed the festival and had a great time. I didn't get to see any workshops and wish there had been time to enjoy more food, but with this many participants, it's no wonder the lines get really long. I would definitely go again as the mood was so great and it was fun snapping photos with the flash.