As mentioned in episode 3 of messa.tv, we went down to Den Den Town for the Street Festival. Things didn’t go quite according to plan so although we have some video clips, we didn’t do a tour of Den Den Town itself.

It was the 5th time the festival has been held and it was an immense success. Most of Den Den Town was made into a pedestrian area with 4 or 5 special performance stages. The stages held things like idol singing auditions, model car challenges for kids and jazz performances. So many turned out, and although the forecast said rain was likely, it was a fairly bright and pleasant day out.

The parades were a little funny, in that the crowd of people parted like the red sea, when they came and closed back in when they passed. There were the ward office parade with the serious officials looking a little out of place, the Osaka Police Band and sponsors (I was puzzled at them wheeling out laptops as part of the parade). And of course there were the cosplay and maid cafe staff parades. You can guess which were the most popular.

Then there were the cosplayers that were just attending informally. We spotted Masked Riders, Evangelion, Dragonball, Sailormoon, Yattaman, Naruto, Pretty Cure cosplayers amongst others. Every costume was fantastic, it was hard to tell if they were self-made or bought pre-made. The most popular (common) character was Hatsune Miku, the vocaloid we’ve mentioned a couple of times on the podcast. There were probably 5 or 6 girls dressed up as Hatsune Miku.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the cosplayers who attended and were gracious and patient to have their photos taken.   Enjoy the photos (video to come soon) and video.