TOKYO, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- With Lion Dancing, parades and fireworks, many Chinese in Japan joined the celebrations on Sunday to mark the beginning of the Year of Dog.

    At Japan's largest Chinese community in Yokohama, about 30 km southwest of Tokyo, shops and restaurants along nearby streets were all decorated by red lanterns and couplets on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

    Besides traditional Dragon Dancing and Lion Dancing, a parade in the Qing Dynasty costumes were staged at the main road, signaling the arrival of the first Chinese group at Yokohama over 100 years ago.

    Crowds gathered to watch the parade and other traditional performances along the 300-meter-long main road. Many Japanese and Chinese also took the opportunity to taste traditional Chinese food such as roast ducks and dumplings.

    In Kobe's China Street at central Japan, strolled over 20 "Chinese historic figures" specially dressed up for the Lunar New Year, such as Liu Bei and Cao Cao in the Three Kingdom Era, and Yang Yuhuan, a famous royal beauty in the Tang Dynasty.

    Attracted by the parade, many people walking by stopped to shoot photos and videos. The "actors" and "actresses", however, are not all Chinese. Yang the beauty was played by a Japanese office lady surnamed Yamamoto. "This experience will give me a lifelong pleasant memory," said she.

    Annual celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year has lasted some 20 years in this Chinese community in Kobe. Shadow boxing, Beijing Opera, traditional Chinese acrobatics are expected to be performed in this week as part of a series of the Spring Festival celebrations.

    Fewer and fewer Japanese are celebrating the Lunar New Year since the cease of usage of the Lunar calendar over 100 years ago. Nevertheless, with some 600,000 Chinese in Japan, this tradition have been sustained and passed on. Enditem