Japanese Festival Season

In Northern Japan festival season July-August.  Every weekend in there is a festival to attend somewhere and we tried to take advantage of that this year.   I personally love to see the reserved people of Japan come alive with all of the singing, dancing, and great festival fried food that we love. We started with the Tanabata Festival right outside the gate in Misawa.

Everyone loves to run through the streamers of the lanterns

We attended the Nebuta Festival in Aomori, Japan. We took a bus with ITT to the festival so that we would not have to worry about where to park and traffic.  We also had assigned seats and the kids were right in front.  Anyone can participate in the festival as long as they are wear the appropriate attire.  They throw bells to the audience as wishes.  The kids got a ton of wishes.

Taiko drumming is a big part of the parade

Costume worn by the parade participants.  They march and dance and chant during through the parade route

Parade float

Next we visited a neighboring town, Hachinohe, to see the Sansha Taisai Parade Floats. We missed the parade but saw all of the floats set up in the park.  It was a great way to get close to them and take pictures.  There was a cacophony of sound and color all around. Each float depicts a well known Japanese tale or legend.

One of our favorite festivals this year happened on Obon week in Japan.  It is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors.  Many places will have a lantern festival because they light lanterns for their relatives and then at the end of Obon, float them down a river.  We went to the Seiryu-ji Temple in Aomori to see the lanterns on display.  The temple is tucked up in the woods and all the paths were lined with lanterns.  I thought the five-storied pagoda was intricate and it was surrounded by a beautiful zen garden all lit up for the nighttime.  It made me take pause and stop to enjoy the beauty of the nature and the architecture.  They have a huge statue of Buddha there, Show Daibtsu.  There were hundreds of lanterns in a courtyard at the foot of the Buddha.  We thought it was very beautiful to see and we tried to impress upon the children that this was a reverent event, just like church for us.  We were happy that we could experience this beautiful Japanese tradition.

The Priest asked if we wanted a picture and I could not resist.  Unfortunately it got a little over-exposed.  His robes were magnificent.

The last festival of the season was again right outside the gate in Misawa.  It was two days of four total parades.  The weekend started with the Float parade.  We were almost too close to get pictures of the entire floats as they came by us.  The huge floats are on two wheels and pulled along by ropes.  The float also open out and lift up.  Unfortunately we were seated by power lines so the floats were not extended to their full heights.  We will know to look for a clear road next year.

 The last day there were three parades in a row.  It started with the costume parade.  We saw sumo wrestlers, Pokémon, Zumba dancers, movie star impersonators, and cute little kids playing instruments.  Really, it was a comical parade.  That was followed by a more serious parade, the Bon Dancers.  The people wore yukatas, casual kimonos, and did a dance throughout the parade route.  I liked to see the colors of the yukatas as they went by.  The last parade was the Mikoshi Parade, or shrine parade.  They built little shrines on a board that they would carry, turn, and lift along the parade route.  Again, the energy was fun and every time I participate in Japanese traditions, I can feel the loyalty to their culture.  It is so wonderful to glimpse even a tiny bit of it all.

Bon dancers

Summer Adventures in Misawa

Summer is a fun time around our household because we like to play and explore.  We had a summer fun jar stuffed with local outings and adventures for our family.  The kids earned the summer fun jar activities by completing their chores and summer homework.  Summer can also be hard for the kids because a lot of friends leave to travel to the states.  It is up to me to keep them really busy. 

We spent a lot of time exploring local gardens in Towada.  Our favorite was the Risoukyo Flower Garden.  We went there to see the Lupine festival and Peony festival. 

We had a lot of rain this summer in the month of August but that did not stop us from going to the ocean, we just wore raincoats and rain boots instead of swimming suits.  Really, the beaches by us have a coastal feel anyway so we were dressed appropriately.  We like to take our dog with us, collect sea glass and shells, and wade in the water.  We have three favorite beach areas (Miss Veedol, Momoishi, and Sand Dollar beach) between 20-40 min drive from the base.  I find it so amazing that we drive into a green, dense forest area, and then within 300 feet, we are at the ocean.  We have such diverse terrain here in Misawa.

One of the kids favorite things to do all summer is participate in summer camps.  The Lunney youth center provides lots of options and my kids did archery, paint balling, water sports on Lake Ogawara, basketball, swimming, ballet, and Japanese Culture.

We started out the summer camp season with Vacation Bible School at the base chapel.  The kids love this one!

We are always happy when we explore on the weekends so that Josh can come with us.  We had a great time at Komakko Land, Towada City Equestrian Park.

Huge medal Horse slide

We got to walk a pony for 15 minutes.  Josh did not have to do poop duty so he was grateful

 We visited Swan Park in Shimoda and stumbled across a nature walk that we had not noticed before.  The whole time Bear kept saying, "I feel so serene here."  She and Pants were so serene in fact that they were inspired to strike some yoga poses.  This was not at all prompted by me, I just have taught them well!

This time Bub was "encouraged" to join in the asana

I could not let them have all the fun in the serene place!

 The base shares a part of Lake Ogawara with Misawa and at the beach opening day party, Josh won us a two night stay in a cabin on the beach.  The cabins are primitive; a couch bed, a full, and a bunk bed.  There is no electricity beyond solar panels and we use the bathrooms on the beach.  We had a great time playing in the water all day on canoes and paddle boards, making a campfire in the cabin pit, and having a picnic on grass.

The community center on base organized a strawberry picking tour.  We went to a greenhouse and had 30 min to pick and eat as many strawberries as we wanted.

We enjoyed the foot onsen after eating our fill

This may be my favorite site of the summer.  Not really, but it does warm my heart to see Bub with a stack of books.  He had to work so hard to read and has been tutored every year until this year.  Now reading is his favorite thing to do.  We spent many mornings reading in a comfy spot.

Cultural Night Tradition- Greece

GREECE

Guests: Perich Family, Rich Allred

Food: Homemade Eggplant Hummus with veggies, Tzatziki with pitas, Greek Penne and Chicken, Easy Baklava, allrecipes.com

Music: Greek- Greece Holiday on iTunes. I always love the music as we eat our meal.  It helps me to visualize being there.

Language Practice: loecsen.com/en/learn-greek We were not very good at this complicated language.  It did not come naturally to our tongues

Architecture: We talked about ancient Greece and Athens and looked up images of the Parthenon and Greek theaters.  We found the many carved columns to be interesting.

Folk Tale- Bear told us the story of Phaethon from Rick Roidan's Greek Heroes book.  Bear is very interested in Greek Mythology so we also looked for images of the Greek gods and Goddesses.  She educated us about each of them.  Here was our favorite image:

Art- We enjoyed looking at the Greek pottery with the stories of the Gods and demi-gods displayed.  Bub liked the monsters from Greek mythology.

Famous People: Jennifer Aniston and John Stamos and also Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and others:

Traditional clothing:

My favorite thing to look at were the beaches and coastline in Greece.  In twenty years if you want me, I will be accepting visitors in the chair next to me!