A Visit to the Bazaar

We visited the Walnut Grove Buddhist Bazaar last weekend. Walnut Grove is a small, old river town south of Sacramento. It once had a thriving Japanese and Japanese-American community. Now, there is a historic street to remind us of the once large Japanese presence in town.

I am not sure how common bazaars are, but since I moved to Sacramento, I’ve been to many. Is it a Japanese-American thing? I’m assuming not, but all the ones I’ve been to have been organized by various Japanese churches: Buddhists, Methodist and Shinto.

This one in Walnut Grove was no different. First we go for the food. There was the prerequisite teriyaki chicken, sushi and noodles. There were the carnival-like games for the little ones that cost a quarter. The funniest to me is always the “fishing” game, where the child flings their line over a plywood panel painted like a fishing scene, then a person hiding behind that panel quickly clips a goodie bag onto the child’s “hook.” Surprise! They caught a prize! I should ask my daughter next time how she thinks that prize got there.

Also, this bazaar stood out to me because it had bingo, which we did not win, but had fun playing. Actually, the girls did not really enjoy me playing. I think they thought I was being a little neglectful of them as I was paying a lot of attention to the bingo numbers. I can see how that game can get addictive.

The girls did not enjoy the heat--even the snow cones and quarter games could not remedy the 100 degree heat. And because of the heat, we didn’t stay long. Although it was only twenty-five minutes from our house, the Bazaar felt much farther away. A tiny break from, if not the heat, then from our usual routine.