The annual Lantern Lighting Festival was held this year at Como Park on August 21st.  The theme of this years celebration was Kizuna: Standing with Japan to show support after the Tohoku Earthquake.  It was a wonderful day and great fun!  We could not have asked for more perfect weather with it being sunny and high temp around 80.  We broke a record of 7,100 attendees – no wonder this festival is one of the largest Japanese-related events in the Upper Midwest every year!  The goal was for the JETAA booth to sell 500 kakigori, and we ended up selling 497!!!  Thanks for all the volunteers who put in long hours, and for all those JETAA who stopped by, said hello, bought a kakigori or drink, and supported our cause!  Also a big thanks to Como Park and JASM for putting on such a wonderful event as this one.