There is plenty for kids, too, including yoyo fishing, a traditional Japanese festival game of fishing for water balloons, the chance to get hands-on with origami, and shogi or Japanese chess. There are also musical, dance and martial arts performances to keep them entertained.
Food
Japanese food, in all its delightful variety, is always one of the big drawcards of Japan Day. More than 40 stallholders will be serving a huge array of traditional street foods, from noodles and yakitori (skewers) to takoyaki (octopus balls), okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes) and Japanese sweets.
Japanese-born, Auckland-based chef and cooking teacher Sachie Nomura, of Sachie's Kitchen, will be hosting cooking demonstrations. She has also partnered with Japanese brewer Asahi to create an authentic Japanese beer garden in The Cloud, complete with traditional snacks such as onigiri (rice balls), chicken karaage (popcorn chicken) and steamed pork buns. Mouth watering already?
"At festivals and when people get together, food is always at the centre. When you share the food, you share the love," says Nomura.
Nomura says visitors to Japan Day can make a culinary day of it: visit the beer garden and enjoy snacks, have something more substantial for lunch, then follow up with some traditional sweets.
If you want to cook Japanese at home, Nomura says Auckland is well-served with Asian groceries and most large supermarkets also stock a good range of ingredients. She also recommends Japan Mart, which has three Auckland stores.
Martial Arts
Steve Cockell is not the kind of person you would take on in a dark alley. Not that he would attack you, but with his ninjutsu skills you certainly wouldn't want to make him defend himself.
Cockell is the senior instructor at the Auckland Maai Hyoshi Dojos, teaching traditional and combat ninjustu. A group of 15 from the school will be one of several martial arts disciplines giving a demonstration at Japan Day.
"Ninjutsu is a traditional Japanese martial art based on the unarmed fighting skills of the ninja warrior, the 'shadow warrior' or assassin," he says.
"The ninja were usually defeated warriors who had to resort to subterfuge tactics on the battlefield to gain credibility."
Cockell teaches a New Zealand interpretation of the traditional ninjutsu fighting skills, which also called on knives, swords, spears and other weapons. He says the discipline appeals to a wide range of people interested in self-defence; half the group performing on Japan Day are women. "Ninjutsu is about the smaller person fighting the bigger person, so women tend to gravitate towards it because it gives them an edge," he says.
Maai Hyoshi usually fight unarmed, but the group's demonstration on Japan Day will have a theatrical aspect, with smoke bombs and costumes and performers telling the story of the art's history and development.
"People think we dress up like this all the time, but we just wear regular uniforms when training," Cockell says. "We are just normal people by day."
Bonsai
On a gentler note, visitors to Japan Day will also be able to wonder at the miniature works of art created by bonsai master Bob Langholm.
Langholm, who has devoted more than 50 years to the traditional Japanese art of growing dwarfed ornamental trees and shrubs, will be demonstrating how to create a bonsai as well as displaying some of his own beautiful creations.
He also teaches workshops at his home and extensive bonsai garden in Mt Albert, which attract a range of participants. "At one stage it was a bit of an old man's hobby, but now we have a lot of younger people coming into it," he says.
Langholm says despite the detailed appearance of bonsai, "it's not difficult at all". Attendees at his workshops "go home with a nice little bonsai" after only a few hours' learning about root systems, pruning and soil mixes. "It's a creative art - you are not just creating a tree but working with the soil. Once you start and get hooked on it, you can't help yourself."
Pop Culture
Providing a window into modern Japanese culture will be displays of anime and manga animation, plus a group of cosplayers will strut their stuff on the outside stage at 1.30pm. Organiser Seong Oh, of Shortland St's Graphic Novel Cafe, says enthusiasts dressed up as anime characters will parade on stage and pose for photographs - an important part of cosplay culture. There will also be cosplayers inside Shed 10.
Oh, one of the organisers of annual comic and manga convention Overload, says cosplay is more popular than it may appear to the older generation - and that means anyone over about 25. And it's not just Asian teens who are into it; Oh says Kiwis have embraced it with enthusiasm.
"It's a way to express yourself but also to get closer to the character you are dressing as," he says. "Young people have their smartphones and the internet, so they are getting information and cultural influences directly from overseas. People are sharing their ideas all the time, globally."
Oh says the inclusion of pop culture aspects like anime and cosplay in Japan Day helps to broaden the appeal of the event and showcase modern Japan.
