Japanese Hula Festival

While in Japan we stayed in the small town of Kinshicho. By accident we came upon a Hula Festival in a nearby park.  Who knew that Japanese have such a big interest in Hawaiian hula dancing? There are approximately 2 million hula dancers in Japan! These three pretty ladies were some of the festival royalty.        

There seemed to be an endless stream of performers, all dresses in authentic looking costumes.  The dancers and musicians were really good and the crowd was thoroughly entertained.

Also there were many booths selling colorful Hawaiian wearables. The prices and styles were great so I bought a couple of 'Hawaiian' outfits to wear back home.
 

We were surprised to see local Hawaiian plants for sale too.  I rarely see ohia or pikake plants for sale even in Hawaii.  The plants were healthy and sold for a song....wish I could have taken some home on    the plane.

I just spotted the muu muu I purchased from one of the vendors in the lower right of this photo. Hahaha!  Anyway you can tell I had fun browsing and being entertained at this Japanese Hula Festival.  Apparently, they have a hula festival every year in this Kinshicho park. I think the people of this little town are doing a wonderful job of promoting the charm of Hawaii and the ftradition of hula dancing.