TOKYO – Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez will grace the opening of the Philippine Festival at Ueno Park here today, August 30.

He will be joined by Jenavilla Bibal Shigemizu, the festival organizing committee chairperson, along with Ministry of Foreign Affairs representatives Yukio Ubukata and Masato Nataniya.

Eleanor Fukuda, vice chairperson of the organizing committee, said it’s all systems go for the festival that will run for two days until August 31.

The Bacolod City MassKara Festival street dance champion for 2013 will perform along with some Filipinos working in Japan.

Segundo Jesus "Panoy" Cabalcar, the MassKara festival street dance choreographer, said they brought their costumes and headdresses directly from Bacolod.

“A headdress weighs about five kilos and MassKara dancers have already their own technique on how to charmingly carry it while dancing,” he said.