Kumoricon is a Community Partner for Mochitsuki, a Japanese American New Years Celebration and cultural fair.
We'll be hosting a promotional table at the festival. Visit our table to pre-reg for the con, and also for some cosplay crafts and activities (exact activities to be determined).
This event takes place on Sunday, January 27:
Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus
College Center
12000 SW 49th Ave
Portland, OR 97219
Google MapsMochitsuki web siteImagine sweet, pounded mochi rice cakes, taiko drumming and hula. That's right hula dance. This year when the annual Japanese celebration, Mochitsuki 2008, kicks off the Year of the Rat, it will take a Hawaiian twist.
The Portland area Japanese American community invites the public to join in its lively celebration. We welcome the New Year with a stage program of taiko drumming, hula, traditional Japanese folk dance, and storytelling, and a Cultural Fair featuring a community stage, displays, and hands-on activities for all ages on Sunday, January 27th, on the Portland Community College Sylvania Campus.
Storyteller Alton Chung will emcee 'Mochitsuki with Aloha' at the 1pm and 3:15pm performances in the Performing Arts Center. The exuberant Asian American drum performance group, Portland Taiko and their youth group, Tanuki Taiko, will deliver heart-pounding rhythms. This year's program will also include Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo's poetically playful storytelling and Japanese folk dance by Sahomi Tachibana's dance troupe and Fujinami-Kai. It wouldn't have aloha without some hula dance by Aukai Laa and Kaau Ahina.
As part of Kumoricon's involvement, we are selling tickets to the stage performances. We need to sell at least 10 tickets as a Community Partner so if you plan on attending this event, please visit our online order form at
here. (The deadline has passed for mail-in ticket purchases.)
Performances are at 1pm and 3:15pm on January 27th. Tickets are $12 for adults, $9 for seniors and students, and $5 for children ages 2 to 11 (plus a processing fee of about $1.25 per ticket).
Online ticket order formWe have updated the ticket purchase link so you still buy them online past the previous deadline! They are now purchased from Brown Paper Tickets instead of from Kumoricon's ticketing service, and there is now a small processing fee (about $1.25) added per ticket. However, these are the same tickets as sold online previously. If you plan on attending Mochitsuki, please buy a ticket for the stage performance as our promotion of these tickets is what makes our participation in the cultural fair possible. Also, if you buy these tickets online because you learned about it through Kumoricon, please post in the thread or let us know at publicity@kumoricon.org because we'd like to get an estimate of the number of ticket sales that we were able to promote.
All tickets that were sold at the January 12 general meeting or online through Acteva are will call. If purchasing through Brown Paper Tickets, we recommend choosing will call due to the short amount of time until the event.
At the Cultural Fair in the nearby College Center, Japanese American and Hawaiian community groups will come together to showcase their culture and traditions from noon to 4pm. Food and entertainment always go hand-in-hand at these festivals. The PCC Food Service Department will open its sushi bar and serve Japanese and Hawaiian specialties for the event while the Community Stage will feature local performing groups and clubs. Activities such as calligraphy, flower arranging and crafts provide hands-on opportunities and complement community organizations' informational booths. There is a suggested donation of $2 for adults and $1 for children for entrance into the Cultural Fair. Tickets for Mochitsuki with Aloha include fair admission.
One essential delicacy of any Japanese New Year celebration is mochi, a sticky rice cake. Traditionally, the rice is pounded into soft dough in a mortar, the usu, with a large wooden mallet called a kine. Pounding mochi requires a team effort and timing, with one person wielding the kine and another brave person flipping over the mound of hot, steaming rice between the impacts of the mallet. Once the rice has reached a smooth, consistent texture, the dough is pinched off into individual servings and shaped into a smooth round. Traditional mochi pounding demonstrations will take place at the Cultural Fair.
Now in its 12th year, Mochitsuki draws a crowd of more than 2,500. Mochitsuki is supported by the Japanese Ancestral Society, the Japan-America Society of Portland and the Consulate General of Japan and sponsored by Japanese American Citizens League, Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, Portland Community College Multicultural Center and Portland Taiko.
Updated news: The event organizers plan on showing the anime film
Nitaboh, sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan. It is planned to start at 1:45pm and last about 2 hours. (Perhaps a little less as the running time of the movie is reported as 90 minutes.)
