Takanezawa Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival)

Last weekend, we went to the Takanezawa Aki Matsuri. Savannah's school made artwork for the festival. Her and another one of the girls in her class had pictures chosen to be displayed at the festival. We went down to see her masterpiece. IT WAS PACKED!!! We had to make a few laps around the parking lot. We got lucky and found a spot. The pictures are below.

Savannah had blood taken for allergy tests. We never heard of that, but that was the process. Elin promised McDonald's so we had lunch there.



Savannah eating her happy meal. It is amazing that McDonald's is exactly the same as the US. There are some funny options, but the core menu is the same and it tastes.... well, better. Your food comes out hot and it actually looks like the picture. Nine times out of ten, in the US, my Big Mac would show up like someone shook it just before hand.








Denny... well just being Denny. Sometimes it is hard to get a serious picture of him, but he makes us laugh.










A picture of both the kids in their glory. We don't eat a McDonald's often so they really enjoy the treat.







Uhhh... they had a parade. I don't remember all of it, but I seem to remember that there were dancers. It was a Brazil percussion group, I think. If you are interested... there is a movie below... (Sorry Elin, the world must be exposed to Japanese culture.) I was actually surprised because the Japanese don't usually show off their bodies.


I think their group may have been called the "rodeo crowns". Yes, I said cRowns. Check out the jacket. I was a little confused because they got all the other L's correct.










The big chipmunk lookin' jump house. It was only a 100 yen ($1.20) per kid and they got to jump for a while. Plenty of time for me to take a few movies of the 'parade'.










Denny and Savannah fishing for gifts. They had small toys with rubber bands hooked to them. The kids had to snag a toy of their choice.













Savannah in the community center. We were stopped for a bathroom break...









Denny with his patented peace sign finger pose.












At one point, I looked over and there is Denny in the middle of about 10 adults looking at artwork. A few of the adults moved out of the picture before I could get the photo. He is too much...





One of the rectangular paintings that were on display.












This is the wall with the kids' pictures on it. Savannah's is the cloud artwork at the top left corner of the board (blue). I have a close-up below.







This is Savannah's picture. She painted it and also wrote all of the Japanese on the sheet. She has started her first grade kanji (the more difficult of the three forms of writing). She is really amazing with the language.

Chipmunk Jump House





Parade Dancers

Halloween Party

Last night, we had a Halloween party with some friends from the neighborhood. Elin planned and organized the whole event - including talking our neighbors into allowing us to trick or treat at their houses. We had dinner, games, tric-or-treating and then the adults had a few BEvERageS. Several of the families have lived in America. Elin is helping the wives with their English and they in turn help her with Japanese. We had about 25 people in our house. Overall, it was a really good time. We are considering doing something on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.



Here is a picture of the pumpkins that we carved for Halloween.








Savannah in her witch costume. We looked all over for green face paint, but it is not so popular in Japan. They were able to find some regular green make-up that gave her face a green tint.






Denny received a Power Ranger outfit from Nanny (Elin's mom). He decided to wear it for trick-or-treating. He showed off some of his 'Power Moves' for me.










Savannah in her costume in front of the fire. I decided to light the grill up in cse we were outside after t-o-t. It is getting cold here already. We also have a typhoon blowing through. All we really get is a lot of rain when we get typhoons since we are so far inland. Also, the weather seems to come from north to south and we are pretty far north.



Denny showing some more moves in front of the fire.












Some of the neighborhood kids as they arrived for the party.







Yuki checking out the 'smoke' from the dry ice. Don't ask me how Elin got a hold of dry ice - she has connections.






Elin and the kids in the kitchen. They are getting ready for games.












Savannah is showing some friends something on the fridge... Not sure what it was.











Fukami san made 'Scream' shaped nan. She also made curry to dip it into. It was really good. I have to figure out where she buys it. I also want to make some spicy curry. We usually go with medium becaus ethe kids can't eat too much spicy food. Savannah has recently discovered tacos. She still won't eat the lettuce and tomatoes, but she likes the shells, meat, cheese and sauce.







Elin and company playing the 'monster game'. You have to reach in the bag and see if you could tell what part of the monster was in it. Several of the kids would not play because they were afraid - including Denny.




Savannah and Anna watching the monster game.







This was some of the food that we had. It was a pot-luck so there was the curry I mentioned before, pizza that we had delivered for the first time ($70 for 3 mediums), finger sandwiches, gyoza (kind of like pot stickers), chicken, a Thai dish, etc. I was so full...




Koga ready for t-o-t in his pumpkin outfit.












SOme of the other kids heading out for some treats.












Mitani san and I were stationed at the corner to hand out treats. I hid behind a car and tried to scare some of the kids. Not too bad, though.






Another picture of the kids at the corner getting treats.








As soon as we got home, every child dumped their bags out on the floor to see what they got... I was amazed to see that happen. It was just like we did when we were growing up.






Some of the kids checking out their snacks.








Savannah's witch's brew.

The kids playing the monster game. Check out savannah's Japanese... I am fairly certain that she has surpassed me already.

Disney Trip - Disney Sea

Sorry for not updating the blog lately. We had a trip planned and then there was a business trip to Japan so I have been a little busy at work lately. I also tried to get all of this updated last week, but the blog was not cooperating. The format is difficult to use. By the third update, I was ready to throw the computer out the window... Anyway, here they are.

Disney has a Halloween month in October. We looked into prices and ended up finding a good deal on a hotel. We had a three day weekend and I stretched it into a five day weekend - my first vacation days since I came to Japan. There are actually two parks - Disneyland and Disney Sea. We went to Disney Sea the first day.




This is the hotel that we stayed at. I can't remember the name but it was next to the Disney monorail. Elin's sensei helped us book a room which I thought was about $230 per night. A little expensive, but isn't everything at Disney expensive? When we were leaving on Wednesday, she handed me the receipt for the room and it was $230 total for two nights. Woohoo! Bonus...


Denny and Savannah a the hotel 'photo op' station. They had costumes to dress up in, but we were in a hurry to get to Disney.










Savannah on the bus to the monorail. Just about everything has mouse ears on in...










Savannah and Denny outside Disney. We thought the suit of armor was kind of cool so we took a picture of it. There is a lot of visual things at Disney. There are a lot of rides, but you just find yourself looking around all the time. And it is loud as Disney... See some of the videos below. It seems like everywhere you go, there is some loud music playing.







This is a globe fountain just outside the park entrance. I think if you look closely, you can see the water that is pouring down the globe.










You can see the large volcano as you enter the park. This is similar to the view that you have when you walk into Disneyland except you walk into the park looking at Cinderella's castle.









View of the lake, ship and volcano. I just finished reading the book 'Pirate Latitudes' so this park was kind of neat. Almost living some of the book.







Another view of the lake from the other side of the ship. The buildings in the background are hotels within the park. I don't know how much they cost per night, but I assume it is a lot.




Picture of the castle at the base of the volcano. I was hoping that you could walk through the entire castle, but most of it is for show only.










Denny at the top of the stairs on the ship.












Another view of the castle. I thought the ramp and the cart hauling supplies up the side of the hill was neat looking. The view was nice with the volcano in the background.








Elin and Savannah in the cargo ship.











View of the entire ship.














Savannah waiting in line at the Scuttle ride. Scuttle is the bird in The Little Mermaid. Savannah had recently figured out how to put pig-tails in her hair so she was sporting this hair-do for about 2 weeks.

Me and the kids waiting for the jellyfish ride. You can see the trend starting, can't you? Wait, wait, wait. We waited about 45 minutes to an hour for each ride. I timed the jellyfish ride. It was 59 seconds... Needless to say, we only got to ride 6 or 7 rides.

Elin and Savannah on the jellyfish ride.

The kids and I again. Probably waiting in line again.

Savannah and Denny in line for another ride. There was a bubble tank behind them. It kept us occupied while we waited.

Elin and the kids at Jasmine's fountain. We only could get part of the fountain because there was a Japanese woman who took about 50 pictures of her daughter on the fountain before we could get close to it. She proceeded to take pictures even after we squeezed in.

Tunnel to the Aladdin area of the park.

This was a large ship - the Colombia - in the park. We wanted to go in, but there was an hour wait and the light show was going to start about the same time we would have gotten to the boat. So we passed on it.




A Japanese couple and I took turns taking pictures of each other in the delivery truck. It was parked near the food court in the 'America' section. We ate at the sandwich shop. It was the best food we had all day. Even the kids enjoyed the turkey sandwich they bought. I had a roast beef and Elin had a Reuben. You can't buy lunch meat in the grocery like you can in the US so we have not had sandwiches for a while.

View from the hotel on the first night.

Riding the elevator down to the lobby in the hotel. Basically, the hotel is a huge hollow building with the rooms making up the walls.





This is the monorail that takes you to the park. There are four stops on the monorail. Two go to the parks and two stop at hotels. It is very convenient.



Walking towards the castle. Note the music sound level.



Inside the Ariel 'Under the Sea' area. It was a hot day so we spent a lot of time in here trying to stay out of the sun.




Dragon that comes out of the lake. I had Savannah on my shoulders so it was a little difficult to take this movie. Again, note the music sound level.