Cherry Blossom Festival links Japan to California
Cupertino-Toyokawa Sister Cities Committee sponsoring 32nd event
CUPERTINO — Cupertino’s 34th annual Cherry Blossom Festival will bring residents closer than ever to Toyokawa, Japan.
The festival on April 29-30 runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at Memorial Park and will include arts and crafts, cultural displays and demonstrations, Japanese food, live entertainment and activities for children.
Alysa Sakkas, president of Cupertino-Toyokawa Sister Inc., said the festival is an opportunity to recognize Cupertino’s sister city.
“The festival is a great community event because it celebrates and honors one of Cupertino’s oldest sister city relationships by gathering our diverse community to experience Japanese arts, culture and food,” she said. “One of the truly unique features of our program is the large variety of Japanese exhibits, performances, foods and hand-on activities.”
Cultural displays this year will include Ikebana flower arrangements, swords, dolls, bonsai and koi. Among the foods offered are teriyaki chicken, Asian chicken salad, gyoza dumplings and sushi.
Sakkas said this year’s festival will have new technological components to bring Japan to California and vice versa.
“We continue to try new components at our festival, and this year we have some truly exciting additions,” she said. “This year, we are teamed with FX PAL, who will bring a techie’s dream to our festival. We will have a drone taking video that we will send to Toyokawa and post to our website, 360 panoramic cameras capturing the festival for our friends to experience the sights, and a live reunion and interactive event with Toyokawa on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Quinlan Center.”
The Quinlan Center will also house a photographic timeline of the sister city relationship and an artist’s pavilion displaying Japanese-themed art, clothing and other items for sale.
Admission is free. Parking is free at De Anza College.