The Midwest Buddhist Temple Ginza Holiday Festival is a large annual Japanese cultural festival that occurs on the second weekend, Friday to Sunday, of August at 435 W. Menomonee Street in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

’s historic Old Town, Chicago

Old Town, Chicago

Old Town is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, bounded by the Ogden Ave. right-of-way on the northwest, Larrabee Street on the west, Clybourn Avenue on the southwest and Division Street on the south and Clark Street on the east and northeast. It spans across eastern parts of the community areas...

. The Midwest Buddhist Temple has kept this annual event going since 1955.

Highlighting the event are four master craftsmen (Waza), flown in straight from Tokyo, Japan. For the three days, they demonstrate their generations-old skills creating their unique crafts. The public have the opportunity to meet the Waza and purchase their crafts. Several other exhibits and booths feature other Japanese items, such as Japanese dry goods and snacks, kimonos, jewelry, anime, origami folding, and an abundance of traditional Japanese cuisine, including their famous grilled Chicken Teriyaki

Teriyaki

Teriyaki is a cooking technique used in Japanese cuisine in which foods are broiled or grilled in a sweet soy sauce marinade...

 dinner, Udon

Udon

is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle of Japanese cuisine.Udon is usually served hot as noodle soup in its simplest form as kake udon, in a mildly flavoured broth called kakejiru which is made of dashi, soy sauce , and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions...

 (Japanese cold noodles), sushi, Edamame

Edamame

or Edamame bean is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod commonly found in Japan, China, and Hawaii. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments such as salt, and served whole....

, and kintoki (Japanese snow cone topped with sweet azuki beans).

Also, featured in the festival are ongoing stage performances with Taiko

Taiko

means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...

 drumming, Classical and Traditional Japanese dances, martial arts demonstrations, and other entertainment and exhibits.

The temple is open for guests who are interested in observing the place of worship and learning the basics of Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. During stage intermissions, there are short Dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

talks given inside the Temple.