Seattle Twist

The Aki Matsuri Festival (or “Fall Festival”) now in its 14th year, is a celebration of the rich cultural heritage of Japan and is presented yearly by the Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association (ENMA).

The Aki Matsuri festival will be on Bellevue College’s main campus this weekend

Saturday, September 10th (10:00am-6:00pm) and

Sunday September 11 (10:00am-4:30pm.)

Admission & parking are FREE!

The festival features several special events such as a leather artist, Kimono presentation, Mikoshi Gishiki (full scale Omikoshi from Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America) and Taiko drum presentations.  Bonsai, Taiko, and Japanese garden presentations as well as puppet shows.

Be sure to catch the West Cascade Puppet Brigade’s ‘The Inch-High Samurai’ a tale of a tiny young man who sets off in the world to find his fortune.  He proves to be braver and more clever than the largest and scariest of foes.

See ‘The Inch-High Samurai’ on

Saturday September 10th in the Carlson Theater at 12:30pm & 2:45pm

& Sunday September 11th in Room E129 at 1:45pm & 4:00pm.

Please note that the times and venues are not the same for each day.

ENMA (Eastside Nihon Matsuri Association) is a non-profit organization of volunteers who want to preserve and further the arts and crafts of Japan for the enjoyment of the greater Seattle community.

Come as your favorite anime or superhero in this Seattle/Chinatown Anime Contest Saturday, July 9th at 7pm. Can you say “photo op”?

This is part of the Dragon Festival, centered in the heart of Seattle’s historic Chinatown-International District, the Festival attracts more than 25,000 people over two days and features a line-up of over 30 cultural performances with everything from the spirited Chinese lion and dragon dances, to captivating martial arts demonstrations and Japanese Taiko drumming. Bounded by the iconic Chinese Gate and beautiful Hing Hay Park, this Seafair Festival brings the streets to life with historic walking tours, a large-scale outdoor Asian market and cultural activities for people of all ages. In addition, this year the Festival will host a Food Walk with many of Chinatown-ID’s 85 restaurants offering up a variety of discounted tastes to give visitors the chance to sample cuisines from around the world.

The 2011 Dragon Festival—back this summer with vibrant Lion and Dragon dances, rhythmical Japanese taiko drumming, Chinese martial arts demonstrations, Asian drill team and Indian dance performances. Seattle’s Chinatown-International District will come to life on Snoqualmie Casino’s Dragon Stage, while children from around the region will be treated to a host of activities from origami, lantern-decorating, face-painting, and kite-making in the American Family Insurance Youth & Family Cultural Pavilion. Arts and crafts vendors from around the region will be on site selling a host of locally made goods.

LEONARD NIMOY, best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series, will be visiting Seattle for Comicon on March 13th and 14th and he’ll be speaking and signing autographs both days.

Nimoy also directed the films Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (for which he also co-wrote the story)

He recently returned to television with his role as Dr. William Bell on Fox’s sci-fi series Fringe.

Comicon Schedule