VietNamNet Bridge – Japanese Genki Festival took place at Hanoi’s Giang Vo Exhibition Center on April 16-17, attracting thousands of people. This was also an event to raise fund for Japan.

The two-day festival had various activities, including displays of silk cherry flowers and Japanese lanterns, cooking introduction, exhibition of large-famed paintings on four seasons in Japan, cosplay performance, and Yosakoi dances.

During the festival, the organizing board sold souvenirs to raise fund for children who suffer from Agent Orange at the Hoa Binh village in Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi; along with launching a campaign to help Japanese victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami.

The festival was organized by the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in collaboration with the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam.

Starting in 2007, the annual cherry-blossom festival attracts many young people who love cherry flowers and Japanese culture.

It rained a little in the early morning. Many youngsters were under umbrellas to attend the Genki Festival.

The festival was organized in the front yard of Giang Vo Exhibition Center, with real and artificial cherry trees.

The opening ceremony began with Japan’s traditional Yosakoi dance, performed by amateur Vietnamese dancers.

Vietnamese puppetry and cheo singing were also performed.

The festival’s highlight was the real cherry tree.

Girls posed with the artificial tree.

An old man admired the real cherry tree, which was brought by air from Japan.

Guards stood around the real tree.

Girls took photos of cherry flowers.

An old woman tried to touch cherry flowers.

A mobile food stall.

A bonus game.

Posing with cherry flowers.

A Japanese girl took this opportunity to make a survey with Vietnamese youth.

A Japanese man with a poster on environmental protection.

Some went to the festival on wheelchairs.

Photographers tried their best to take good shots.

Cherry blossoms.

The festival was also a place for youth to show off their Cosplay costumes. Cosplay is a subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, and video games; and less commonly, fantasy movies, Japanese pop music bands, Visual Kei, fantasy music stories, novels, and anything in the real world being unique and dramatic.

Lolita (white), a lovely character in Japanese manga.

A white fox.

A thin boy disguised as a Japanese girl.

PV