More Japan Festivals and Fun!

Hikawa Jinja Shrine Mikoshi and Dashi Parade!

This parade was at a Buddhist Temple right behind our house, so we stopped by to join in their big annual festival.  They had a parade of floats and some very interesting costumes.  Even though we didn't understand much of what was going on it was still quite entertaining. 

After the main procession, there was some kind of ritualized struggle where the crowd attempted who was carrying a god encased in a small shrine attempted to enter the big shrine area but was repelled several times.  Eventually, they pushed they way in.  I think it had something to do with the pull of good and evil.  It was super crazy and really crowded. 

We went with our neighbors and good friends to the festival.  Adam and Julianne live live only a short hop and a skip away from us which is so great especially since they have the cutest girls Catherine and Carolyn who are almost the same ages as Sienna and Elliana.  They are also our sponsors and have helped us settle in so quickly! 

Of course a Japanese festival isn't complete without fish on a stick 

accompanied with awesome drumming!

Oeshiki Festival- Ikegami Honmonji Temple

Lantern Parade

"Oeshiki is a Buddhist festival commemorating the anniversary of Saint Nichiren's death. Although it is celebrated at many places in Japan, the festival held at Ikegami Honmonji Temple is the most prestigious as Saint Nichiren passed away at this temple. The event has been handed down through generations for 730 years along with its long-standing history and tradition. The highlight is the mando (10,000 light) rite in which about 3,000 people carry sacred lanterns decorated with cherry blossoms along the approximately two-kilometer route from Ikegami Station to the temple. Some 300,000 people attend the festival each year, which is a truly intense night event."

It ended up being quite a lot of effort to get to this festival but to me, it was worth it.  (Todd might tell you another story).  We did at least get to spend extra time with Rochelle and Jeremy while we were there which was a bonus!   Rochelle is one of my best friends from college and she and her husband got a short job from Oct- December here in Tokyo.  It is such a cool opportunity to have one of my dearest friends living abroad near me, even if it is only for a short while.

Our First Sights Sounds and Smells of Japan!

So we definitely took a break from blogging for the past several months.  But now we are trying to get back into so that we can share all the fun experiences we've had.  These next few entries might be a bit short, but it will give you a sense for what our life in Japan has been like so far.

We got to Tokyo in August and just jumped right in to exploring the city.  

What better way to start our experience then seeing the 

Tokyo tower (it might be familiar to you if you have seen Big Hero 6)

 and then a temporary Godzilla exhibit, because this is the birthplace of that monster! 

We live on an enclosed US compound in the center of downtown tokyo about a 15 minute walk from the Embassy.  Its a guarded safe area with a playground, green field, 

tennis courts, small store and preschool, and activity center.  

Best of all we have a great pool that the kids enjoyed before it got too cold. 

 

Walking down the street, we encounter such random but fun things. 

 Here is a miniature pony that you could take pictures with and pet for free. 

These ladies loved this little doggie all dressed up for a festival.  

Here is a night festival Sienna and I went to.  

It was in our area called Roppongi Hills Bon Odori Festival Dances.  

Elli was sick so we will have to hit this festival again next year.  

They had all these traditional dances that they let everyone dance along with.  

They were kind of like a Japanese version of  line dances that move in a circle.

 They also had a cool drum performance.  I don't really know what it was about, but the costumes were a bit scary.  They had long white springy sticks that they danced with that made a really cool effect with the drum movements.

Our First Big Festival in Tokyo as a whole family! This was a traditional dance contest called The Harajuku Omotesando Genki Matsuri festival  and it was definitely worth going to. Such amazing costumes and dances. We watched some of them rehearse and then saw others on the stages performing.  Later there was a parade with the dancers and even the drizzling rain didn't dampen the spirits of these dancers.  

So we have still lots of fun times ahead but are pretty happy so far!

Summertime- Part 2

Flash Back Fun Summer Times in Lubbock 

 This is a post about this past summer, but I can't move on until I update with these so just take a little time machine walk with me and let me get these out-- especially since we just added another little one, this really needs to get done!!!

Science Spectrum Fun- It was animal weekend so they had tons of fun animals to hold and play with.  We got to see a tiger show and Elli and Grace even rode an elephant.  It was a ton of fun. 

While staying in Lubbock, we took a short vacation over to Ruidoso, New Mexico.  My girls loved playing in the woods and building a real fort with Granddaddy.  Everyone helped, even our twins- That's how Cheri and I refer to Tanner and Sienna now.  

Relaxing on the deck

Go cart and bumper boat fun- Elli loved riding the go carts and beating everybody!

Sienna is all smiles here, but she was not a happy camper when she was hit by the water on the boats.

Dad set up a tent and the older kids got to camp on the deck next to the condo. It was too windy to do it each night but a couple nights made coming up to Ruidoso even more fun.  There were bears that we saw around the woods so we didn't feel comfortable letting them camp in the forest.  

The deer were really friendly and not scared of people at all.  All the kids tried to "feed" them little pieces of leftover food from lunch.

Of course we all had to get hunting gear and practice being native americans in the woods!

Miniature golfing proved to be much more of a struggle with 4 kids under 5 but the kids had a blast.  Sienna especially was so excited every time she hit the ball and would follow it all the way to the hole, usually putting her head practically in the hole to retrieve her ball.  It was really funny.

Ice cream with cousins, swimming, and horseback riding!  Sienna couldn't have been happier up on that horse.  She was screaming with delight and thrilled to be lead around.  We had wanted to all go on a horseback riding adventure together, but they were all booked up for the week.  

We also made a Backrub Town T-shirt for my dad for his birthday.   It was made of felt houses and marker and each of the kids helped with one of the houses.  We even had a school, hospital, and gas station.  The kids had a great time giving Granddaddy a "massage" with the toy cars. 

Gondola, hikes, and swimming completed our mountain retreat.

Back in Lubbock enjoying some fun in the sun! 

Granddaddy is the best! 

Independence day! Happy 4th! Laura and kids got to come to Lubbock for the 4th which was great.  

I just love parades.  American pride just explodes from me and I am just so happy!

We went to a special celebration afterwards with my grandparents and I won the award for who had come the farthest.  It was a win for the whole family and a fun recognition for my grandparents.

4th of July swim party and Fireworks fun.  I totally got spoiled this Independence day!

This was a church activity.  I just love that Dad was doing the sack race with all the kids.  He fell pretty fast after starting!  Loved it! 

    

Sienna took these moments to just lay down in the soft grass.  I hadn't really realized it but she really had never experienced grass like this since we had been living in big city Taipei. 

 She was relishing her moments in it.

The girls had a great time with cousins on Granddaddy's boat.  Elli looked so snazzy in her glasses.

Grace performed some great "tricks" on the tube that made the ride quite exciting.  

Elli also took swimming lessons all summer and went from not wanting to ever put her head under the water to jumping off the diving board and swimming over to me.  It was awesome.  

More fun at science spectrum: This time Ryann and Cozy joined us. 

And we had lots of other adventures in Lubbock.  We had such a wonderful month there.  I loved how all the kids got along this time and each had there buddies.  Sienna seemed to take ownership of tanner and kyle and Elli was attached to Grace at the hip.  I'm really grateful for them to get to spend so much time here.