Gakusei Travels

アフリカの味

We went to another festival! ( ^ω^ )

It was actually a dual festival. The Reggae & Cuisine Jamaican Festival and the African Heritage Festival held in Yoyogi Park. Aicha was the one who found it and asked if me and Sam wanted to go. Umm? Absolutely! I didn’t know that there was such a big black community in Tokyo for there to be a cultural festival, so I was really excited to go. On top of that, I knew the food would be great.

The event started at 11 and so I originally asked we we going to get there at the beginning. Aicha made a valid point in saying “you know black people never start on time with anything. If we go there at 11 they will probably still be setting up.” Good point. We’ll go at 12 lol. Of course though, and that’s my bad, but I took forever to get dressed so my friends had to wait on me. After I had the nerve to say let’s get there early (￣▽￣)

The event was at Yoyogi Park, so we went to Harajuku. When we get there, it’s very much set up similar to how the other festivals I’ve been to so far with different food stalls and reggae music playing in the distance. As we walked around the Jamaican side of the festival, following the delicious scent of jerk chicken the three of us thought the same thing, “I’m hearing my people but I’m not seeing my people.”

Most of the stalls were in fact run my Japanese people and most of the crowd were Japanese. Not that it was a problem. In fact, it was actually kind of neat. I didn’t really realize how much they liked African and Caribbean culture. Now by Caribbean that meant only Jamaica. Poor Sam is Haitian and there was no representation there. We did get to take this funny picture with a cardboard cut out of Snoop Dogg. He’s not even Jamaican T_T but I’m sure you can guess what association was made. Other than him, we saw a lot of Bob Marley pictures and merchandise.

The first thing Sam and I decided to get was a drink lol. We saw several stands selling things like Jamaican Jerk chicken, tacos, and then a stall with Daiquiris caught our eyes. I went for the pineapple one and Sam got mango. While it was good, I don’t think they added that much alcohol into it. And once it started to get really hot outside, the ice melted and really watered it down. I still paid 800¥ or $5 for it so I was going to finish it. I also got my first meal cause I had plans to try whatever looked good (which was everything). I got a Jamaican Jerk Chicken sandwich from this stall called Good Wood Terrace. Come to find out, the stall has a physical restaurant in Shibuya! They gave us stickers. There’s a whole Jamaican restaurant in Tokyo and I didn’t even know it lol. I’ll definitely have to try out the physical restaurant.

We then wandered over to the African side of the festival. While Sam sat down to eat the jerk chicken she ordered (I just munched and ate my sandwich), Aicha and I browsed through the other stalls. So they did actually have some traditional Japanese food stalls selling French fries, shaved ice, and yakisoba, which I thought was pretty neat. Then this strange thing happened. There was this organization there. I think they were called something like “Israel United Brothers in Christ.” Or something like that. Idk. They kept trying to give Aicha a pamphlet and they were super pushy to anyone who walked by and didn’t take no for an answer. I noticed that they tended to specifically walk up to those who were black. It was super annoying, especially since Aicha is clearly Muslim. She literally wears a hijab, and the fact that they didn’t respect that was so annoying. We eventually said we already had a flyer when someone came up to us another time.

I was surprised that we couldn’t really find any trash cans. You would think they’d have many available for a festival. We found a stall eventually that let us throw stuff away and it happened to a Senegalese food stand. Aicha’s family is originally from Senegal, so she was dying to have food from home. I will admit, the food looked really good and I was kinda mad I already ate lol. That didn’t stop Sam though and she went back later to order the Yassa Chicken Aicha had ordered and I had gotten some beignets. The chicken was sooo good. And the beignets make me want to go visit New Orleans cause I instantly think of The Princess and the Frog. I said I’m going to figure out how to make it myself.

After we ate, we found a stall that did henna. The three of us decided to get matching designs to commemorate the day (even though it’s only temporary). Actually, the funniest interaction happened. I was watching Sam get her henna done when a Japanese woman approached me. She said, “excuse me but you’re just so beautiful. Can I take a picture of you.” It honestly made my day and lowkey boosted my ego so how could I say no. lol so my photo may randomly appear on social media somewhere. At least I looked cute.

Nearby at another stand, there was some kind of drum circle going on. Two African guys basically gave traditional drums to people and let them play on them. Now, I don’t know if they were a group that previously practiced to perform or they managed to teach that many people in a few minutes, but they were genuinely so good together. People were dancing and having fun.

It was funny cause eventually as the day wore on, more black people showed up. They were just late as usual. I also saw a lot of young children that were mixed with black and Asian. A lot of the little girls had their hair braided with beads and little boys had the cutest curly Afros. It actually just warmed my heart. My friends and I were talking about how we were happy that events like this exist to showcase the cultures of the many communities that do live in Japan. There are many cultures and ethnic groups living here, even if it isn’t always showcased in the media.

It was also funny because we saw so many Japanese people wearing dashikis. They had on shirts with the continent of Africa printed on it. They had braids. They had dreadlocks. One dude had longer locs than me and I was lowkey jealous. They went down to his calves. And you know, I wasn’t even really mad at it. They really really really like Black and African culture and you can’t help but be flattered by that. As long as none of them rolled up with black face then I was cool.

Once our henna was done, we checked out some of the shop stalls. They sold clothing, purses, jewelry. Things you’d typically find at a market except they were wayyy over priced. I saw this one cute purse with a black woman wearing a head wrap. It was like 8000¥. Aicha also said a lot of those bracelets she already had lol. She said there’s so many stands in Senegal that sell the same things for so much cheaper than they were trying to sell them for in Japan. She also stopped me from buying this one crossbody purse. It was so cute and such a pretty yellow. But it was around $40. Aicha told me not to waste my money cause in Senegal the purses are way cheaper and better quality. I could get the same thing for more than half the price there.

So moral of the story, I’m planning a trip to Senegal.

Around this time a little parade began. There was an MC during the event who was controlling the music and what not. It was a really eccentric Jamaican guy who just brought energy and positive vibes. A group of guys carried this statue with him of a stone cutout of Africa with the words African Heritage on it. This was honestly my favorite part of the event. Following the statue were people in playing the drums and people just carrying these totem poles with various flags from African countries hanging on it. Now, I’ve never been to Africa, so I can’t really compare, but the vibes were just so fun and positive with people cheering and dancing along.

All and all, I had so much fun. Only thing that sucked was it was just sooo ridiculously hot (thank god for my hand fan). But the food was good, the vibes were great, and I got to share this experience with Aicha and Sam.

As I said, I’m now planning a trip to Senegal lol. I’m looking at flights. I literally am not allowing Aicha nor Sam to stop being friends after this summer and we go back to our home cointries. I value our friendship and I’m glad to have built these bonds with them.

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