At Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, our Obon Festival is our biggest and most well-attended event of the year. It is a time for us to remember our ancestors and loved ones who have passed away and also to reunite with our family and friends. This year, due to the pandemic, we had to our cancel the festival that has become our annual tradition. In July, with the help of our sangha and friends in our community, we streamed our Virtual Obon. Now, thanks to our friends at Azay and Fugetsu-Do, two family-owned Little Tokyo businesses who have supported us throughout the years, we have the opportunity to continue our safe-at-home Obon celebration. The menu created by Azay and Fugetsu-Do was inspired by our Obon Festival. The Azay set will include tri-tip beef, tamales, cold tofu, fresh farmer’s market vegetables, and butter mochi inspired by some of our Higashi Obon favorites. Fugetsu-Do will provide kurimanju similar to our Fujinkai’s kurimanju as well as specialty manju. There is also an a la carte chili rice add-on for those of you who can’t have Obon food without chili rice! Thank you to Azay and Fugetsu-Do for both generously donating a percentage of their proceeds to benefit Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple during this time and we hope you enjoy the Higashi Obon-inspired menu! We look forward to seeing everyone once we can safely open our doors again. Please stay safe and healthy!