When the 2025 NorCal Cherry Blossom Queen and her court take the stage at Cupertino’s 41st annual Cherry Blossom Festival later this month, one candidate might look familiar.
Cupertino resident Nanami Sumimoto is being sponsored by the Cupertino Toyokawa Sister City organization, which also puts on the two-day festival. Sumimoto is among those who’ll be vying for the cherry blossom crown at noon on Saturday, April 26.
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The festival, set for April 26-27 at Memorial Park, celebrates the sister city relationship between Cupertino and Toyokawa, Japan. Outdoor entertainment includes Taiko drum groups, Japanese dancers, various martial arts and musical performances. Children’s activities feature games, arts and crafts, and a petting zoo.
A gallery of Toyokawa student artwork from the sister cities’ annuali art exchange program will be on display. Japanese cultural arts and crafts vendors, a pictorial timeline of Cupertino’s 46-year sister city relationship with Toyokawa, and Shogi instruction and demonstration will be grouped at the Japanese Artisan Pavilion, located at the Cupertino Senior Center.
The nearby Quinlan Community Center will host indoor performances and cultural displays, demonstrations, workshop and activities. Chief among these performers is Master Kinuko Mototake, who established the Azama Honryu Seifu Ichisenkai U.S.A. Classical Okinawan Dance Academy in Alameda in 1996 and Okinawa Eisa Shima-Daiko, a group dedicated to showcasing Eisa, a traditional Okinawan folk dance, in 2013.
Mototake also serves as director of the San Francisco Okinawa Kenjin Kai Performing Arts Division and as an instructor for the San Francisco Okinawa Kenjin Kai Eisa Shima-Daiko group.
The free Cherry Blossom Festival will run 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. both days, with free parking at De Anza College lots A and B.
Festival food includes sushi, spam musubi, gyoza, yakisoba, mochi, teriyaki chicken bowls, bento boxes, ice cream, shave ice and cotton candy, with iced coffee, boba drinks, beer, sake, plum wine, sodas and lemonade to wash it all down. Food trucks will also be on site.
For more information, visit www.cupertinocbf.org.
