Occasion: 15th Rainbow March Sapporo
When: 18th September 2011
Venue: Starting point @ Odori Park TV Tower and ends at Susukino
(Details of this event, click HERE)
Address: Odori TV Tower, Odori Park Nishi 1
Last Sunday, the legendary 15th Rainbow March in Sapporo took place. I was pretty excited to check out the the parade which I heard so much about. It was drizzling in the morning but the weather didn't deter me from heading out to catch the rainbow march anyway.. and I soon realised that the slight drizzle wasn't able to dampen the mood and spirit of the marcher of this colorful parade as well.. (:
What exactly is Rainbow March Sapporo?
Taken off their official website:
“Rainbow March Sapporo” is an annual pride celebration event for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) people, as well as LGBT-friendly groups and individuals that held at Hokkaido Prefecture’ s capital city ‒ Sapporo. In 1996, Rainbow March Sapporo held the 1st celebration parade with only small group of Hokkaido residences. This year, we will have the 15th celebration with the longest history of organizing yearly parade in Japan
drawing many participants from Sapporo LGBT community as well as from all over Japan and - increasingly – from throughout the world. Starting at Odori Park, a number of LGBT people will walk around the streets of Susukino area. Some will be dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored rainbow flags and dance in the city streets.
Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) people, as well as LGBT-friendly groups and individuals that held at Hokkaido Prefecture’ s capital city ‒ Sapporo. In 1996, Rainbow March Sapporo held the 1st celebration parade with only small group of Hokkaido residences. This year, we will have the 15th celebration with the longest history of organizing yearly parade in Japan
drawing many participants from Sapporo LGBT community as well as from all over Japan and - increasingly – from throughout the world. Starting at Odori Park, a number of LGBT people will walk around the streets of Susukino area. Some will be dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored rainbow flags and dance in the city streets.
For more information about this event, please visit their official page HERE
San and Tah came along with me to check out the event. I was so excited the whole time that I actually didn't manage to camwhore as much as I would have liked to. However, below are some of the awesome photos from the parade that day.
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| The Rainbow Flag led the start of the parade |
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| Colorful people carrying colorful balloons (: |
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| Love the sign plates.. Sapporo = Gay Town?! LOL |
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| Even the 外国人 were supporting this amazing cause and joined in the parade |
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| No amount of rain was able to dampen the spirit of this parade... |
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| First Car of the Parade.. loved it! |
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| I was so excited I was busy waving rather than taking pics.. =__=||| |
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| this is the only photo I have of myself at the parade.. *gasp* *the horrorrrrrrr* |
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| Interesting 'ladies' strutting their stuff down the walkway |
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| not wanting to be left behind... |
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| Second car strolling down the street carrying a bunch of men in their sexay shorts (: |
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| BRAVO to these men.. cool costumes.. (: |
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| Why.. Hello there my Fair 'lady'... |
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| Some even have burlesque-theme to their outfit.. Drag queen?! |
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| More 'Queens'? |
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| 3rd and last car of the rainbow parade |
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| See who came and joined the fun? hehe |
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| Condom Man!!! Carrying important message to the public!! |
In conjunction to this special occasion, Sapporo TV Tower at Odori Park was illuminated with rainbow neon lights!! It was awesome max!! I was delighted to be able to witness the special effect of the lights. I am sure it is pretty rare and only happens once a year.
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| Rainbow neon colors light illumination... (: |
As for me, of course I am in the spirit of supporting this good cause.... I got all hyped up and had my nails done in Rainbow streaks!! (:
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| Me showing off my Rainbow streaks nails (: |
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| Slightly splotchy artwork but still a good job well done i have to admit... hehe *pats my own back* |
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After the Rainbow parade, we decided to grab something to eat and we ended up following the Rainbow march down to Tanokikoji. Initially, we wanted to eat at TK6 cos Tah was raving how delicious the food there was but unfortunately, the place was closed. So we ended up trying this store we walked past earlier which seemed to be beckoning us to go in. LOL.
FYI... I always have this wild imagination of food calling my name. And such strange moment happens when I am feeling very hungry or just plain itchy backside wanting to munch on something. Sigh.... how la not to get fat??!!!
Anyway... this is where we ended up having our lunch.
Occasion: Food calling our names...
When: Hungry after Rainbow March Sapporo
Venue: Donabe Hanbagu Hokutosei (for URL: Click HERE)
Address: Tanokikoji 5, Minami 2 Nishi 5
From the name of the store, it is pretty obvious the store's specialty is all about the hamburger patty. Trivia moment, as I found out from Tah, (the fact of this piece of info is in doubt though... believe at your own risk), in Japan, if you want to eat 'hamburger' as in juicy succulent meat patty in between 2 pieces of buns, you have to look for the katakana writing of ハンバーガー
but if the menu states ハンバーグ, that means it's just the meat patty and not a hamburger as a whole. Interesting much?!
Let me put it clearer below:
ハンバーガー：Hamburger
(Read as Han Ba- Ga-)
ハンバーグ：Meat patty only
(Read as HanBa-Gu)
Did i manage to confuse you guys yet? LOL... well I find that little piece of information amusing.. so yes.. anyway.. i did a little search on the internet and found out that HanBa-Gu is supposedly Japanese- English for Hamburg. However, hamburg IS hamburger after all... so I really don't understand how HanBa-gu is only recognised as the meat patty here in Japan. Well, Japan is truly is unique on its own. (:
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| Trying to figure what to order.. |
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| The shop frontier |
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| The top 2 dishes are highly recommended by the shop |
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| The chef happily obliging my request for a photograph (: |
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| Yummilicious in the making... |
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| Good news!! On every 29th of the month, all items are on 30% OFF due to 'Meat Day'!! Hooray!! |
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| Featured in local news. Good stuff!! |
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| Rainbow March supporter and Hungry People |
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| San's 12 types of vegetables hamburg... *salivate* |
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| Tah's tomato-based Hamburg with crispy bacon topping *thinkidiedandwenttoheaven* |
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| Happy Tah with his food |
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| Happy San with her beer which she likes more than her food.. alcoholic!! *cough cough* |
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| Happy Me with my food (: |
Well.. enough said.. we came out of that place a very happy bunch of people... good food, good stuff..
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| Obligatory pic of moi in front of the store (: |
I guess I might be heading down here again this coming 29th and check out other items on the menu and enjoy the good 30% discount off the regular price. Anyway, according to their business card, they have another outlet located at Tanokikoji 1, so feel free to check out the other outlet if the place is packed with patrons during peak hours.
Till then... have a good week ahead (:
"Our language is funny - a fat chance and slim chance are the same thing."
~J. Gustav White~
