Toikio Japanese Culture Event

Today Noshi and me jumped on the train and travelled to Lokeren, where in youth house Vagevuur the Toikio Festival took place.

I was tipped about this event by Concullega (a sort of slang for a co-worker from a rival company) Kris, and as we are both rather Otaku, we would check this out.

The festival is a small scale, first edition event, running two days.  It featured workshops, demonstrations, some market stalls, bars and food, as well as japanese folk games.  Now, the entrance was free, but you could buy a support ticket.

This ticket then had "slots" on it, for which you needed to earn stamps by attending a workshop, play all the folk games, and you got a japanese cupcake and selfmade ice tea to boot for your 5 euro.  In addition, if you had all your stamps, you went in a bowl and twice a day a winner was drawn who got a loot crate of either japanese candy or a kawaii box.

The cupcakes where filled with Macha, a japanese traditional Green tea, and me and Noshi later on in the day attended the tea ceremony as well.  Okay, hers was better stirred then mine, but I liked the bitter taste of the tea more.

Noshi attended an origami workshop as well, and folded a cute little Pikachu for me.

There where also some arcade games, and while I beat her at soccer with a magnificent goal at the end *couch, pole and in lucky shot* and beat her at Mortal Kombat II (god, I played that game for ages back in the day), she handed me my ass with Virtua Fighter twice.

We then moved on to the traditional folkgames, and out of the 3 I only managed to beat her at ring toss.  Fishing, ball tossing... she owned me all.  The others where fortune telling and candy grabbing.

Gohan was there with traditional veggie balls, very tastey stuff.  Later on we also took a bite from the foodtruck there, but I forgot to take a picture...

One of the demonstrations today where Taiko drums, now this is an instrument I can see myself playing.

There was also a Taekwondo demonstration, but that is something I don`t see myself doing xD

And then at 16.00 the result of the draw was announced... and your geek took the price!  I selected the Kawaii box (later research learned us these loot crates actually cost 20 USD each and are send from the states) which Noshi duly claimed for all the cuteness stationary in there...

The event was very cosy, attracting visitors without ever becoming to crowded, and it had a very enjoyable atmosphere compared to the "big shows" which are basically eBay in a stall events these days... 

We had a great day, and will be definitly back next edition if the calendar allows...