Saturday, April 4, 2009

St. Patick's Day in Tokyo


I don't know about you, but I didn't expect St. Patrick's Day to be observed or even mentioned in Japan. Imagine my surprise when I read on the Shibuya City website that there would be a St. Patrick's Day parade on Omotesando-dori on March 15th. I couldn't imagine what that would be like, and I really wanted to go. 

We planned to go as a family, but Michael was sick that weekend. Chris had finally recovered from being sick - I think it was his first trip out of the apartment since falling ill on the 9th. Chris and I went down to Omotesando with Denise, Andrew, and Daniel Hersey to check out the parade. 

It was not a huge parade, but it was a fun parade. St. Patrick himself started the parade, followed by the US Army Japan marching band. There were Irish dancers, Irish dogs - setters and wolfhounds, and graduates of an Irish University. In other words, anything remotely Irish was in this parade. 

Every Irish pub in Tokyo marched in the parade with signs and coupons - I have a feeling that they are the primary impetus for this parade! One of the pubs had a super jazzy combo that
 marched in the parade.

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