A cloudy Saturday. I thought it would rain today as it was on the forecast but no rain when I went out of the house. It would be too annoying to move with an umbrella in one hand. My friends and I agreed to meet up at the Philippine Expo today happening at Ueno Park. It's a 3-day event and today is its 2nd day.
Since my friends arrived 2 hours ahead of our agreed schedule in the venue, they warned me about how crowded the place was and that it would be an impossible mission. I think they wanted to meet other friends who also came to the expo that's why they're there earlier than planned. In the end though, they didn't meet.
Ueno Park is so spacious, as in very very spacious. There's the Ueno Zoo, museum, and other buildings and stuff in the park. But maybe because of the expo, it has become more crowded.
My friends were right. It was so impossible! To enter the venue premises, you need to line up. And when you get inside, you need to line up again to buy food. They even told me our common friends who were there inside were lining up for food for an hour or more. In that time frame, we would die of hunger. Kidding!
There were a lot of Filipinos who came to the expo as expected, but there were also Japanese people who attended. It felt nice that some Japanese want to eat Filipino food, as I heard them say フィリピン料理 (Filipino cuisine).
The Philippine Expo was actually featured in Japanese TV, maybe that's why many came on the 2nd day.
I only took a few snaps from outside the "fence" and look at what I have seen inside. More and more people. I bet they are all hungry and angry probably.
I saw Taho and remembered some childhood memories back then. Taho vendor would pass by our neighborhood shouting "Taho", and my brother would always hurriedly ask my mother or father for money to buy one. I didn't like Taho back then, but learned to be fond of it as I mature.
By the way, if you don't know what Taho is, according to Wikipedia:
Tahô is a Philippine snack food made of fresh soft/silken tofu, arnibal (sweetener and flavoring), and sago pearl (similar to tapioca pearls).
Most of the stores are so busy cooking for the seemingly unlimited number of customers. Oh the aroma of the food would make you drool and hungry even if you're not.
We could not see more of the stores from the outside because the tents were covered. We could only hear the performers' voice on the stage. At that time, someone was entertaining the crowd with a song. And soon afterwards, Ms. Gay Competition was held but we didn't stayed there that long to actually wait for it to start. It would have been fun.
We did a quick turn around the expo's venue and realized it's actually a bit confined and compressed unlike last year's Philippine Expo's venue in Shin Koiwa Park. Ueno Park is more spacious than Shin Koiwa Park but actual venue of the expo was so compressed and small, so I wasn't sure how people can fit inside.
I was also looking forward to seeing Andrew E., a rapper from the Philippines. I grew up hearing his songs on the radio so I thought I would see him live today. His show would start from 7PM, which is also the time he mentioned in his song, Banyo Queen.
The first line of the song is:
Ako'y nasa Malate, alas siete ng gabi
which translates to english as: I'm in Malate at 7 in the night
There could have been another version of it saying: Ako'y nasa Ueno, alas siete ng gabi or I'm in Ueno at 7 in the night. But then, we weren't there to hear it.
You could listen to the whole song below if you are interested.
I was actually looking forward to some Filipino food and festival feels but we were utterly defeated and discouraged by the crowd. I hope next year they will make the venue wider.
Just as I thought we would be going home without tasting Filipino food, we went to a nearby Filipino restaurant named Mother's Kusina ni Ate Glo and had Filipino food all you can eat for 600 yen. The restaurant is small, but we enjoyed it like we were eating from a Filipino home. Ate Glo and the people in the restaurant made us feel at home. There weren't a lot of food anymore when we arrived there as it was late and they had a lot of customers that day, but Ate Glo quickly cooked for us just so we could satisfy our hunger.
A few tips if you are planning to go to the Philippine Expo.
- Be early so you could enter early
- Eat first before going to the expo if you are hungry and can't wait for more than an hour for food to be cooked
- Be patient, expect delays and time consuming stuff
- It's kinda hot so bring your cool towels/wet tissues
- Enjoy the program
If you want to know more about Philippine Expo 2022, you can visit their official website.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.