Feeling slightly stung by missing the World Stamp show and the opportunity to see the British Guiana 1c magenta stamp that shoe-man Stuart Weitzman paid $9.5M for to add to his collection, I cheered myself by trading this one-in-every-ten-year event with a less collectible but more frequent and feastive street affair. Adding a little zen to the swirls of Italian and open barbecued German sausage of the usual street-closing summer fairs, the Japanese block fair on Park Avenue this weekend was an absolute treat. Whole octopus was grilled or rolled in battered balls, there were vegetable pancakes – some of them on sticks, shaved mango icecream with red beans, skewered dumplings, ramen and noodles. But the piece de resistance was the tree ring cake, made from an extraordinary process using a rotisserie oven and adding dough one layer at a time, allowing the first to cook before the second, the third, the fourth and so on until the thirtieth layer is added, creating a ringed affect like the rings of a tree trunk. This cake is definitely one that is impossible to make at home, and perhaps that’s why the baker suggested it brings good luck and you should make a wish on the last bite. So I wished for the people of earthquake prone Kumamoto for whom money was being raised by people and puppets, I thought of Obama in Japan, and I spoke with a man of peace who looked like he’d been there 71 years ago and somehow survived. And then I wished for Ali who had fought sumo’s and stereotypes and who may no longer sting like a bee but floats like a butterfly…