2011 BC Scandinavian Festival in Burnaby

The Scandinavian Festival this year invited Japan as guest country for 2011.
In this event, 5 Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark) and 1 guest country will display their culture and put on various performances from their culture and country.
For example, Japanese dance group performed a Japanese Taiko dance (It is actually Okinawan.)  Now, don't ask me what is the difference between Okinawan culture and Japanese culture.  It is a long topic.  The difference has historical and geographical reasons.  It is historically heavily influence by Japan, so now it is more like a regional culture within the Japanese culture.
We both love the Okinawan dance music!  It gave very traditional tribal beats and moved our senses.
Okinawa: The History of an Island People

Japanese Okinawan drum dance

They also had a Viking Village section displaying how people lived 1000 years ago in that region.
It is interesting to see but with two small babies, we weren't getting any learning done.
In each nation's section, they had shop vendor which sells food, merchandizes, handcrafts....
They also had kids toys and free flags and pins.

Viking tents scandinavian festival

hand made kids safe paint toy train

I bought a hand made safe dye toy train.  Well, I guess I had to trust the old couple that this is really safe.
They don't have this kind of hand crafted toys, so we were glad that they had them.

viking keychain and pins

I also got some pins and a viking keychain for souvenirs. Just a part of my big junk collections.
Maybe I will go there next year as well...