Fresno Obon 2013

In a nutshell, obon or bon odori is a special annual Japanese American celebration of the lives of those who have passed away in the past year.  It's a very happy event with lots of food, simple choreographed dancing, and carnival games for little kids and sometimes adults (e.g., bake walk).  One thing I love about the Fresno Obon is that the food is delicious and they experiment with new things every year while keeping the favorites (e.g., somen, koroke, shave ice).  Last year they added grilled fried rice balls and continued that this year, and this year they added more options to the hot dog menu, Hawaiian sliders (they might have had that before), and furikake fries.  Each Japanese Buddhist (Jodo-Shinshu) temple typically has an obon each summer, so track down your nearest one!

See pictures from previous obons here:
Fresno Obon 2008
San Francisco Obon 2008
San Jose Obon 2010
Orange County Buddhist Church (OCBC) 2009
More OCBC Obon 2009
Parlier Obon 2009

Here is a list of this year's obons.

Koroke = Croquettes - basically a fried ball of meat & potatoes. One of my obon favorites.

 

Koroke, koroke sauce, & Fuji Apple sake (so good...)

Spam musubi

See pictures below for how you are apparently supposed to eat somen (dipping it into the juice/sauce instead)

 

I heard the furikake fries were good, but they ran out before I could get them!

I had the "R U Korean" and had the smelliest breath for awhile.