Scaled-down Ginza Holiday Returns to Chicago, Tradition Continues Connecting People
Photo: Visitors enjoy watching taiko drumming performance by the Ho-Etsu Taiko at Ginza Holiday Lite hosted by the Midwest Buddhist Temple | Yoshiko Urayama
Ginza Holiday, a beloved community summer event in Chicago, returned to the Midwest Buddhist Temple in a scaled-down version on August 13 & 14, after missing two summers due to the pandemic.
Ginza LITE was held at the Temple’s parking lot on W. Menomonee St. The famous Teriyaki Chicken sizzled on the grills and drew many hungry visitors again this year. Veggie burger dinners and Hawaiian shaved ice were also on the menu.
Photo: Volunteers grill MTB’s popular teriyaki chicken | Yoshiko Urayama
With concerns about the still-rampant COVID-19 pandemic, this year the organizers decided to reopen the event on a smaller scale. While Teriyaki Chicken, burgers, shaved ice and soft drinks were provided, other Ginza goodies such as udon noodles, sushi and corn-on-the cob were not available. Cultural displays and craft vendors were not present.
Ginza’s most famous staple, Teriyaki Chicken, was grilled by volunteers at the venue as usual. Available for purchase with or without a pre-order, the chickens were sold out before the end of the day.
The permanent stage on the venue was not used this year. Instead, entertainment was performed on the ground level. Performances were given by the Ho Etsu Taiko drum ensemble, the MBT Taiko group, and the Temple’s Min’yo folk song group. Seated in chairs on the ground, the audience was given a chance to experience performances up close and more intimately.
Interviews with Ginza Holiday Visitors
Japanese Americans George Okuno and his brother James were enjoying Teriyaki Chicken, along with their family and friends. Their father used to work at the Kyori restaurant downtown as a chef. Their mother worked at the Chicago Shimpo as a typist until 1997. After having moved to New York, their parents are now back to Chicago.
Photo: From left: James Okuno and his daughters, Michelle and George Okuno and their daughter Emiko and Naomi, and Junko Minami and her husband Michael Michalak | Yoshiko Urayama
The brothers recalled their childhood, when their mother brought them to Ginza Holiday year after year. Their father was always too busy to come. The best part of the memory is food, said George. He had to have the Teriyaki Chicken at Ginza. He always asked his mother to buy him the chicken; Ginza Holiday wasn’t a real Ginza Holiday without it.
As young children, George and James attended the Japanese language class at the Temple. George remembers when he and his classmates gave abacus demonstrations on the stage at Ginza Holiday one year. He was in 2nd or 3rd grade. “I remember I was so nervous on the stage,” George said.
Photo": From left: Eugene Yu Ji, Lixin Zheng, Jiun-Sheng Chen and Ruoji Zhou | Yoshiko Urayama
Only a year and half apart, the brothers have two daughters each. Now they are instilling the Ginza Holiday traditions in the next generation.
Junko Minami and her husband Michael Michalak are friends of the Okuno family and came to Ginza with them for the first time.
Minami and her family moved to Chicago from San Jose, CA in 2004. The two families came to know each other because their children attended the same school.
According to Minami, a Buddhist temple in San Jose’s Japan Town also hosts a Ginza festival every summer, featuring foods like teriyaki chicken, rice balls and corn-on-the-cob. “I hear it’s usually packed here, but it’s [still] very nice today,” Minami said. “I used to go to Ginza in San Jose; maybe [the chicken] is better here.”
Eugene Yu Ji and his wife Lixin Zheng came to Ginza for the first time. Ji is a pre-doctoral student at the University of Chicago, while Zheng graduated from the same school last year. “I love it here; the chicken is very good,” Zheng said. She and her husband, who speaks some Japanese, are fans of taiko music. ”We are here for the taiko performances,” she added.
Photo": John Terendy (L) and his wife Danielle Montana | Yoshiko Urayama
Standing by the couple were their friends, Ruoji Zhou and her husband Jiun-Sheng Chen. The four came to Ginza to take advantage of a rare occasion to spend time together. Zhou and Chen got married three years ago and moved to Chicago last November when Chen found a job here. Zhou is a post-doctoral researcher at the Northwestern University. The two visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara on their honeymoon. They loved Japanese food and the old Buddhist temples. Originally from Taiwan, Chen grabs the chance to stop in Japan at Tokyo and Osaka, whenever he flies between Taiwan and the U.S.
“He [Chen] is learning Japanese, and he always looks for an opportunity to speak to someone in Japanese,” Zhou said.
How concerned are they about Chinese military drills surrounding Taiwan in recent days, after Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit on Aug. 2?
Chen said it’s not the first time. “We got experienced [in situations like this],” he added.
John Terendy and his wife Danielle Montana are also the first-time Ginza visitors. They came after their friend, taiko musician Nick Clementi, told them that Ginza Holiday has “the best music and best chicken teriyaki in the world.”
They had pre-ordered the chicken, which they were going to pick up. “That will be our treat for tonight,” said Terendy.
Clementi has informed them Ginza LITE is a “mini-version” of the big festival this year, and it will be full scale next year. “We look forward to it; we can’t wait to come back next year,” Montana added.
John is an avid Godzilla fan and is highly knowledgeable in the movie franchise. He could continue talking about it nonstop, including the recent death of the famed Godzilla movie star Akira Takarada and the anti-nuclear message expressed in the first Godzilla film.
Roy Yamamoto and Joyce Ogura-Yamamoto were seen at a table enjoying Teriyaki Chicken with their friend Ruth Coyle. The couple are familiar faces among the MBT’s volunteers.
Ogura-Yamamoto and Coyle are long-time friends who began taking ballet lessons in the late 1970s at the same dance school. They danced together in the same group of students. Coyle was the tallest in the group, while Ogura-Yamamoto was the shortest, the two recalled, laughing.
Coyle, who still takes a dance class today, is interested in different food cultures. Of Swedish descent through her mother’s side, Coyle says she has a lot of Swedish baking tradition in her. Baking is a “big Swedish thing,” and she bakes a lot herself, Coyle explains. Japanese food culture is “definitely one of the things” that fascinate her, she added.
Ogura-Yamamoto and Coyle look very different and come from different backgrounds, and yet they continue sharing close friendship after decades of association. They still reminisce about the old days at the ballet school and exchange stories about their families.
“We had a good time,” the two agreed at the table in the Ginza Holiday festival, which has a history even longer than their friendship.