2026 Hina Matsuri Festival

 

The Hina Matsuri Festival is known by different names like the Japanese Doll Festival. This specific festival was held at the Simpson United Methodist Church. This was my first time attending this event at this location. The church had clear architectural influences by Asian styles. When you first enter there was a room with some vendors selling goods which then their little market continued into another hallway. Then outside of the room where the dolls were displayed was a whole bunch of different examples of Japanese flower arranging.

Then you turn into the room with all of the different dolls and other Japanese cultural items.

There were many different themes of dolls. They included everything from court dolls, to historic figures, to mythical figures.

There were also other cultural items like the below wig in a traditional style.

What Japanese festival would be complete without an example of Samuri armor.

There was also a few different examples of kimonos. 

The detail in them was very beautiful.

Food

There were a few booths up stairs that had some food/snack options, but the main food was in the basement. So, there was a big problem with this. The church did have an elevator, but there was a sign on it that said use at your own risk due to on going issues with it. This automatically made the food possibly inaccessible to people with mobility issues and could be seen as not being ADA friendly due to them not keeping their elevator open while having events open to the public. This is something that you should keep in mind if you are going, and something that the church needs to fix if they are going to continue to be open to the public...and not close down due to ADA violations.

At the base of the stairs they had a try showing the different offerings. The food was not marked on the try, but they did have a sign on the by where they were serving the food.

The first thing that caught my attention was what they called the Musubi set. They had a few different ones you could pick from. The best tasting one was the edamame one.

The other one looked like they used a seaweed stamp to cut out a design.

I got one 1 of the Hello Kitty ones because I thought they were cute. Little did I know that they were just rice with no filling. I feel like that was a cheat and that they should have had something inside or the rice should have been flavored in some way. It was cute, but super disappointing in the eating. It was also dry and sucked the moisture from your mouth.

These two rice balls for $5 were only worth it if you got 2 of the edamame ones.

In the open area where you could sit and eat they were giving out free green tea. This helped with the dryness of the rice ball. I actually really liked this green tea because it didn't have the bitter taste that green tea normally has. When I asked what brand it was the servers didn't know.

The next thing I tried was the something noodles. The little cup was not on the menu, but they were selling them for $2. The noodles were really good.

They also had the noodles in abura age (tofu pockets) for $7. Each one looked like they held less then the $2 cup, so size to cost I thought these were a little high.

The SPAM musubi was priced about average. The mini ben(to) was priced high compared to how small it was. I can't tell you how it tasted since I didn't buy one due to the low value I saw with it. I would recommend skipping it.

The main event was nice. The food was hit or miss. The main event was small, but nice. They had the dolls on display along with other Japanese cultural items. There was also little booths where you could shop. They even had a tea ceremony that you could watch. I would go to this event again.

If you want to learn more about the Hina Matsuri Festival check out the below sites:

https://www.globetrottinkids.com/hina-matsuri-the-japanese-doll-festival/

https://www.jcchawaii.org/resources/hinamatsuri

https://travel.rakuten.com/contents/usa/en-us/guide/hinamatsuri/

2025 Lunar New Year Costco Finds

  

I find it interesting how international foods and holidays are going mainstream. In the past it was hard to find products, but now there are so many to choose from with many large stores, like CostCo, having a large variety of products. This article looks at some of the CostCo products I tried this year.

Sushi Bake! Heat & Eat

I grabbed this because I though it would make a quick dinner. There are fried sushi rolls that are served to you hot, so I didn't think of this being to weird of a concept. I could also see this product as a way to expand the palette of a person who doesn't like the concept of raw fish. A gateway drug in a way.

The product was ok. It came with eel sauce and shredded seaweed that you could put on top. It was very dry and the box only gave 4 servings as a main course and you would need to pair it with a side or two. Maybe a miso soup you could dunk it in to rehydrate it. I tried it once, but don't think I would buy it again.

Kunin Rigato Mix

I pop rice cracker mixes like some people do trail mix. What caught my attention about this product is that on the back it tells you what each piece is. I have never seen this before on any rice Cracker mix. The flavors seemed different from the other mixes I've tried.

A lot of times I only try a product once, mostly because either there are so many other things to try or the product just isn't that good. These were so good that I had to go back and grab another bag before they stopped selling them for the season. In this mix my top two favorite pieces were the cheese wheels and the chili mochi. I found myself picking out all of the cheese wheels before other people in my household could eat all of them. Sorry...not sorry.

Vonbee Honey Citron & Ginger Tea

This product is one of the best things I have ever found at a wholesale store. I got to try this in the store as a sample. I was confused on why the prepper was adding hot water to jam. This product really does resemble jam, but it makes an amazing drink. Most of the time when I try samples in the store I just walk off, but I grabbed a jar of this. I would recommend using 2.5 Table spoons full to a 12oz cup. I pay a lot for boba drinks and other drinks at places like Starbucks, but none of them have anything that can compete with this. I found myself saving money by not going out to get drinks and just using this stuff. The huge jars were $9.99 at my store and I know I got more than 20 servings out of it. This means I was paying 50 cents or less per serving when compared to drinks at restaurants that run $4-10. You can also cook with it as well and I plan to make a chicken dish like orange chicken with it. This product was so good that when my family went back to get more before they stop selling it for the season, that we bought 4 more bottles in the hopes that would just get us to the summer season. This product I can not recommend enough.

Tropical Fields Candies Mochi Gummies

These I also got to try as a free sample. My cup only had 2 of the 3 flavors. They were ok, but not worth me buying.

Pop & Bottle Organic Matcha Green Tea

Super drying. I thought that the almond milk would smooth it out, but I felt like I needed to drink a pint of water after I finished my little sample cup. This is a product that I would avoid.

Truffettes de France

I had seen this product in a TikTok video and I thought that the tin was soo cute that I didn't care about the quality of the product for the price they were charging. I just wanted the tin. The tin does not have a flat bottom and kind of wobbles. You had your choice between a red lion or a gold one. I went with the red since it had the best color contrast. The truffles were actually good, but you have to like a dry dark chocolate. They did have a slightly bitter taste and had coco powder on the outside. I ended up having a hard time to not keep popping them. In the tin you get two bags filled with loose truffles (they were not individually wrapped).

Overall, my adventures with the CostCo products for Lunar New Year went well and I'm curious to see what they bring back next year and what new products they will get.