First of all I love the Buddhist Bazaar and this year is the 80th year of it!! Amazing. Started in 1946. Just imagine what 1946 was like for our Sacramento Japanese-American community. And yet they started this celebration.
Secondly, I find it depressing that the Bazaar is still on it's post-Covid, one-day schedule. To me it has an outsized significance in making it feel like Covid is not totally over and the stain of it still lingers. And of course it does linger, it so many ways, but this is an in-your-face sign for me. It seems obvious and also I've had it confirmed that this is about how many volunteers it takes to put this thing on. So whether it's volunteers who passed, or just the nature of our post-Covid society that people don't help as much or whatever, it's stayed at one day.
I am so grateful it happens at all, but boy is it crowded with one day. And also, I don't like their new ordering system. You used to queue up at each booth for the food offered there. One advantage to that is that you could go for the less popular dishes and not wait. I barely ever even tasted the teriyaki chicken for this reason. And I swear, didn't they used to have tempura? I don't know, because if I'm right about that, the line was too freaking long and I never tried it! The move used to just be udon, and something else random that didn't have a line, to not wait at all. Now there is a giant line outside for the chicken and outside stuff, and a not-quite-as-giant line inside for the sushi, onigiri and udon.
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Update: I went at 330, because I wanted to try the sake flight that they started selling at 3. The chicken was already sold out, and I heard it was sold out by 2. So that means they sold out of their top dish within 3 hours, when they had 6 additional hours to be open. Hmmmm. The sake flight was fine, but really a cold Sapporo goes best with the food and the intense head under the tent. I went for my volunteer shift and there was not one directing anything, you just had to look for opportunities to grab tasks. I fell almost immediately, bruising my pride but no injury or really even any mark on my knee. I stayed about an hour 15 but there didn't seem much for me to do and there were a lot of folks standing around in my same boat. I would not volunteer again because it seems like they are adequately staffed with church members, boy scouts, and folks from other area churches. Oh yeah, and they went back to lines at each area, or at least it was that way when I got there, I prefer that! The takoyaki was good! Scene report for 2026
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