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