Utsunomiya Omatsuri

Two weekends ago, we went to the Takanezawa Omatsuri festivals. Utsunomiya is the larger city that we live close to. Their festival was last week. We decided to go. I learned a few things from the local festival - beer is expensive was one of them - about 500 yen ($5) for an 8 or 10 ounce glass at some places. I took a 12 pack in my over the shoulder cooler and we took the train into town.

We were at the festival for about 4 hours, but time went by quickly. We had a lot of fun. There is a chance that we will be back in the US next year at this time, but our plans are not set yet. If we do go home, we will not get the chance to attend these festivals. Our return date is July of 2012 so we will probably miss it again. So, we were happy to get the chance to attend this year.



Savannah and Denny at the train station.










Drum truck - it seemed like the different city blocks were blocked off. These drum trucks would make circles around the block. There were also vehicles pulled by people that did the same thing. The people watching were the ones that were on the move, walking up and down the sidewalks.






Dancers on main street.










This was one of the carts that I mentioned above. It was hot that day. With the costumes and efforts they were making, these people had to be hot. I was sweating just watching them. The cold beers helped, though.







Bratwurst is really hard to find in Japan. In fact, I have not seen it yet. I heard that Costco has them, but we have not needed to go there yet. We still have a lot of goodies that we shipped.

I jumped at the chance to (possibly) get a brat. I bought this sausage. I could not figure out what was sticking out of the top, but quickly found out it was a bone that they cooked the sausage on. It was more of a kielbasa that a brat, but it was still good.

I also went heavy on the mustard only to find out that it was the hot Chinese mustard that you get at Chinese restaurants. Did I mention that I had a few cold beers?


Savannah in her kimono.

If you notice the sidewalk, it has a textured walkway. This is for blind people to use. I think we have these in the US, but here, they are everywhere. I think the Japanese are very conscience about the needs of everyone in society.








Denny got a kick out of this giant Cheeseburger. I think it was a stand related to the "Grab Happiness Diner". Funny name, but they have pretty good burgers. Savannah and I ate there when we went to Utsunomiya on a shopping trip. I think it was over $30 for lunch.











Dancers on the main street in Utsunomiya.




Carrying a Mikoshi through town.





Another town's mikoshi







Takanezawa's (our town) mikoshi. We were looking for our friend Larry Hughes who was supposed to be helping carry it. We saw them on the sidewalk at one point, but didn't see him carrying it.




Pom-pom in front of the shrine on main street.




Another giant pom-pom.




One of the carts pulled by people - men, women and children.

Ichi man nin pool

Last Saturday, we went to the Ichi Man Nin Pool (Ichi Man - 10,000, Nin - person). It doesn't sound possible, but I think it is... Wait until you see the size of this place. We went with our friends, the Mitani's (the family we went camping with).

They showed us that they sell discount tickets at the Family Mart (convenient store). Believe it or not, the tickets cost us about $25 total - for the whole family. They get you for a few dollars on parking, but for about $30, we went to the pool for the whole day. You can also pack a lunch and bring drinks so that saved us money as well. This place looks like a water park, but we are told that it is technically a community pool which is why it is so cheap.


The families in the wave pool. This was actually toward the end of the day. I was trying to dry off a little so it also gave me an opportunity to get more pictures.







Savannah and Denny in the wave pool. Looks like a bonus bikini picture as well...








Elin, Denny and Savannah in the wave pool. Takako san is with them wearing her hat.








Denny and Savannah on the speed slide. They went up and down this slide about 15 times. Considering the number of stairs that they had to climb to get to the top, they were pretty tired at the end of the day.

Denny was not tall enough to go on the bigger slides. Savannah was too afraid - until the very end of the day. She finally went down and had a blast. I am sure she will be on them the next time.


These are the bigger slides. One is a full tube slide (blue) and one is an open tube slide (yellow). Again... a LOT of stairs.








This is a view of the 'Lazy River' area of the pool. Denny, Yuki and I made it to the area in the left side of the picture at one point during the day, but we never made it to the lower area... Not enough time.






The diving board pool.










Wave pool. You can see the people lined up at the rope waiting for the waves to start. When they do, the rope is raised and you can go closer to where the waves start.







Denny in his swim suit. It caused a lot of drag on the speed slides so he had to drop the shirt half-way through the day. We slathered him up with sunscreen.










Savannah at our rest area. We were lucky enough to find some shade to hang out in.

Denny and Savannah on the speed water slides.

Elin and Denny in the pool.

Wave pool.

Diving Board... anti-climactic to say the least.

Somen at the Eco-center and Omatsuri Festival

I am a little behind so I am trying to catch up. Lucy for you, you get a two-fer this week. Unfortunately, the time sequence goes backwards today so follow along...


Elin and the kids went to the science museum with Reiko sensei and the Musick family today. I didn't get to go so I don't have much commentary... I heard they spent five hours there.









This is a room with a lot of stag beetles in it. Elin said that one died and dropped onto a little girl's head. Nice.

This looks like a house for the beetles.

Photo op with a robot body... I think.

Denny in the robot body.

Neighborhood festivals - Omatsuri

There are at least two sections in our town - Takanezawa - Housekidai and Koyodai. I am not sure that we were supposed to go to the other festival, but we have friends that live there so we went.

This is Denny decorating his very own fan. It is running in the high 80's . low 90's right now. The humidity makes it feel a lot worse.

This is a Mikoshi. It is supposed to be a carrier of the god of a specific temple.

Later that day, we stopped at the Housekidai Omatsuri. The kids took to the ring toss game. It was only 20 yen ($0.20) so we let them play a bunch of times. The prizes were actually pretty good for the low price of playing.

Savannah begging for more money to play the ring toss game again... You can almost read in her eyes that she knows she is going to get it.

Savannah picking out her sixth or seventh prize.

Denny picking out his next prize.

Bicycle parking at the park. This was only about half the bikes that were there. It was a community party and there is no parking so your choices are limited.

And, of course... It rained. We were able to get about an hour in before we left. Elin's played 'wet tee shit contest' in her white shirt. I couldn't figure out why the men were staring at us until... I figured it might be time to go.






Water guns and Somen noodles at the Eco-center

The kids got to make home-made waterguns out of a hollow bamboo tube It was open on one end and had a small hole in the other. They gave us a stick to tie a sponge to the end and then cover with a cloth. You fill the tube, put the stick in and push. The pressure forces the water out of the small hole in the bamboo. All of the kids had a waterbattle for about an hour.

Denny making his watergun/

If you look closely, you can see the bamboo trough that is set up for the somen noodles. They run cold water down the tube and drop noodles into it. All the people standing around the trough grab the noodles with chopsticks or forks. You dip it into a soy based sauce with green onions and ginger. It is a customary summer food because it is cold. Also, the greenery above the trough is actually a kiwi plant. We had never seen one before.

Next to the Eco-center is a tennis court. There were several women playing tennis. In order to stay out of the sun, they had on long pants, long sleeve shirts, hats and gloves. I was standing at the eco-center watching the kids play with the water... and I was sweating. I can't imagine being in all of those clothes playing tennis.

Denny playing with his watergun.

Savannah and the other kids spraying each other with water. Believe it or not, there was not one tear shed and not one fight.

We also received corn on the cob. It was sooooo good. It was the first corn on the cob that we have had here. It is the same as the US, only it costs 300-400 yen per ear ($3-$4). Savahhan only has one top tooth at this point so she struggled a bit.

My bowl of somen noodles. It kept getting bigger and bigger because Denny and Savannah had more fun catching the noodles than eating them.

Elin eating her noodles.

This is a seceda shell that we found. They are everywhere this tear. I am not sure if they follow a similar schedule as they do in the US. The sound is nice to listen to because it reminds me of summer.

Savannah at the science center in Utsunomiya

Dancing at the Housekidai Omatsuri

Watermelon smashing at the Housekidai Omatsuri

Carrying the Mikoshi at the Koyodai Omatsuri

How much fun can you have with 100 yen ($1)?

Somen noodles at the Eco-center.

General Pictures and Camping at Nasu

We went camping last weekend. I had Monday off for what I thought was a holiday, but it turned out to be for Honda people only. Honda sponsored an endurance motorcycle race that Honda has off for. I didn't make it to the race, but I'll take a day off.

There are not so many one or two day vacations here (Good Friday, Memorial day, Labor day, Thanksgiving, etc), but we have three, one-week shutdowns. We have one coming up the week after next. We are going to try the beach again. We have a hotel for two nights. There is also an aquarium in the area. If you remember the Hitachi Seaside Park blog entry, that is basically where we are going.

Below are some general pictures from the last two weeks. They kind of jump around in terms of timeline, so bear with me.

These are Savannah's morning glories that she grew at school. This picture was taken in the early morning. The color was more of a blue color.





These are the same pictures of the same flowers later in the day. Their color changed to a purple later in the day. Most of the flowers have died off but there are a ton of buds popping up.




We went to the park the other day. I see these trees often and think they are cool. I like the way it wraps around the pole.






In this picture, I am standing on the giant dirt mound at the park. And Denny... well he is just being Denny. Sometimes it is hard to get a serious picture of him.







Denny in his soccer outfit. He is still playing which is unbelievable since the humidity is so high. I ride my bicycle to work in the morning and have to change when I get there. It is not so hot, but you sweat ALL THE TIME! There are times when I am sitting in our air conditioned office and I still sweat. I can't wait for Fall. I am told it is much more comfortable.








Elin and her friend Takako Mitani san went to Penny Lane Bakery which obviously is a Beatles themed bakery. The connection between the Beatles and Bread? .... I have no idea. Denny is standing next to Takako's children Lisa and Emma. They spent a lot of time in the US - maybe 6+ years if I remember right. They also have a son named Yuki. They took us camping as you will see below. Their English is unbelievable. It is nice to speak English, but it is a crutch at the same time.




This is a picture from inside the bakery. If you look close, there is bread shaped like a peace sign... and Takako, of course.










This is Elin trying look like she is walking along with the Beatles in the Abbey Road Cover. It might of worked if they were about 1.5 feet taller.








Elin and Kate Hughes at the 'Wive's Night Out'. Every month, the spouses get together. Unfortunately, it was on the same night as a work drinking party, but Elin committed first. It was a Wednesday so usually drinking parties on Wednesday are not that good of an idea anyway.





We have a Kirin Beer factory in Takanezawa. They are closing soon but we are not sure why. Elin thinks it is due to the economy. They needed a dolly to haul all that beer back home.

The other children in the picture are Liam and Colleen Hughes. They go to the same school as Savannah. Liam is in the 5th grade which is amazing. Colleen is in the third grade which is about how far savannah will make it.


Elin had to go to her driving practice this Thursday so I had a half day off. I also had Friday off for her actual test as a free-bee, no vacation needed. Anyway, we went to our favorite ramen shop - She She ramen (shay shay ramen). It is a little mom and pop shop. They always gush over us when we go there.

Before our food came, they brought out two stag beetles. They asked if I could go to the dollar store and buy a container so they could give me one. I said I would. By the end of the meal, we walked out of the shop with both beetles and the container to boot... everyone is so incredibly nice to us. They eat vegetable and these funny things that they sell at the store that look like jello shots. They sell a similar product for kids... mental note, must not mix. I have to admit, they creep me out. I had to clean their box so I had to pick them up. They have little grippers on their legs that grab on to you and they won't let go. When you get them off of your hands, they grab onto the box so you can't get them in. It took me 10 minutes to get them back in the box.



Camping in Nasu. :



We took this picture as we were driving through a small town on the way to the campground. We thought the lights hanging over the street looked like UFO's. Yeah, we're weird.







This was the campsite. There were a lot of trees, but we had a sunny spot... temporarily. The tent on the left is the one we borrowed. The gigantic tent belongs to the Mitani's. About 6;30, it started to rain and the zipper on our door broke. there was a lot of water in the tent even though we tried to use towels to divert it. All 9 of us ended up sleeping in the big tent. We were thankful that they had such high level equipment.

We bought snack packs for all the kids. Denny's had what looked to be onion rings so of course, he made rings of them.

One of the activities at the campground was Superball fishing. They dumped about 5000 (no joke) superballs into the pool. The kids had to fish them out with a net. We think there were three heart shaped balls. If you got one, you got a prize.

Elin and Takako san used 'strategery' and set up on the bridge.






On the way back to the campsite, I tried on Savannah's goggles... and that was only after 2 beers. Needless to say, there were more back at the campsite.




This is what started to roll in behind us about 6:00 or so. It didn't look too bad, but it got worse.





I took our grill so we could make yakiniku (grilled meat). I think we had beef, chicken, pork, shrimp and hot dogs. Other than deer, it covered the based for the meat group. We also made yakisoba (noodles, vegetables and pork). Yakisoba is popular at cook-outs.



The Mitani's and the Parker's with BEvERages.






And yes.... THEY HAVE BINGO HERE!!! They played 4 games. Between us, we had 9 cards for each game and didn't win a thing. We were told that Coleman actually sponsors this campground so all the prizes were Coleman related - 2 Coleman camp chairs, a Coleman camp table, Coleman bicycle, etc. I don't know what it is about bingo, but I always want to win. Savannah has the same affliction. No skill involved, but I want to win.

In Japanese style, this was the box that you reached in and grabbed a specific color for the corresponding prize. We just happened to be standing right next to it. The first time they opened it, all I could think of was Pulp Fiction. All Pulp Fiction fans must enter a comment.


Once again... Denny being Denny. Mitani san made curry for breakfast and Denny proceeded to dab his spoon all over his face. Maybe he thought he was still playing bingo. He is lucky he didn't hit himself in the eye.



This is a picture of the common area tent that they had. When the rain came, that is where we spent our time in the evening. During a potty break, I took a video clip at night from inside the dining tent. We sat with our backs to the mesh so we were only wet on one side.

Overall, it was one of the best times I have had here so far. By the way, for those that camp, the sight was 7200 yen ($72) for one night. Honestly, it was worth every yen.

Reiko Sensei tried to take a photo of the family at the beer factory (I DIDN'T GET TO GO!!!). Unfortunately, it was on video. I thought it was cute so I downloaded it. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. Usually, I delete the files in frustration.

Denny riding his bike on our street.

And yes, Savannah's body finally decided it was time to learn balance. We practiced for a while before rainy season, but stopped. Last week, she wanted to try her bike. She got on and pedaled away. Elin said she was stunned. We now ride to the store and other places together.



Denny on the monkey bars at the park by our house.



Savannah doing her famous flips



Campsite at night that I mentioned earlier.



Superball fishing.