May 5th is Kodomo No Hi (National Children's Day) in Japan. It's part of the Golden Week celebrations, which includes 4 national holidays, and is one of Japan's longest vacation periods. So people are off work and school and ready to party or travel or spend time with family (which of course are not mutually exclusive!). This particular day is to honor and respect children's individual strengths and to wish them happiness and good health.
(Yes I say! Why do we not have this is other parts of the world? We'll celebrate a bunch of dead guys, some fabric, having jobs, and even weather predicting vermin -sorry Punxsutawney Phil- , but what about the kids, eh?! Not one fun holiday for the kids that doesn't involve religion or pretending to be someone else.)
Eri and Rufus invited us to join them to a children's festival in Anan. It's about a 45 minute drive toward the southeastern coast, a most splendid ride through narrow back lanes and country roads, rife with farms, creeks, mountain scapes and forests, and which is actually Rufus' commute to work. Anything you do repeatedly can become mundane, but if I were ever to have a route to work, I'll take this one.
It was a spectacularly gorgeous day, not a cloud to be seen, with just the right amount of breeze to take the sizzle out of the sun. Excitement was mounting as we walked down the long ramp toward the river, not sure what to expect. Hopper and Ira were already fired up chasing each other and pointing out every flying little thing they saw.
We were greeted by massive koi wind socks floating in the wind over the river. They are the emblem of the festivities, symbolizing strength, bravery, and determination and bringing luck and good fortune. The festival itself was a whole fairground of kidsplosion set up on a river bank (full of rocks I might add, this so wouldn't fly in the US, that you couldn't use a stroller or wheelchair, and some litigious mf'ers would stub a toe and bankrupt the city).
They must've asked real kids what they want to do because they totally nailed it: a fireman helping kids spray a hose, open police and military vehicles, different sized diggers operating with kids on laps, tank tractor rides, train rides, boat rides, a treasure hunt in the rocks, as well as water sprayers, shooting games, and some popular super hero/cartoon characters walking around to get your photo taken with.
Hopper had so much fun, it was a joy to see him so happy. Whining was at a minimum, smiling was at a maximum. And the snacks were top! A fantastic day!!!
the bridge got partially washed out in last year's typhoon season...
... so the military was there to escort attendees...
... by boat!!!! (AND, these vests were new, as in no gross sweat/mildew smell whatsoever!)
steady stream of koi
mama hijacked the po-lice car
my partner Hopper, with his own break pedal
holy sh!tst!cks it's Anpanman!!!
these dolls are all over this prefecture, must get more info about the who and why
cutest fire truck ever! and that is the color of the river!
one of H's fave things to do is spray anything, but he made me stay next to him due to the stranger at the helm
DIGGERS!!! (but Hopper wouldn't do it, don't think he wanted to sit on a strange lap)
you know those pervasive foam water sprayers with the drawback intake, these are made of real bamboo!
little takoyaki, little shaved ice, little popcorn, little fried chicken
Tractor tank ride, possibly Hopper's fave of the day. They set up the course with a couple ramps that the tractors tried to climb. Genius
had to include this photo, something nicely chaotic about it
ok, this is all about Ira, I mean look at that face!
sometimes my camera does interesting things all on its own
Thomas ride
fishing for the captain's hat
our boat captain, one of Rufus' English students
He popped his head down and said...
... I'm a hermit crab! And this is my house!
with Sawa looking for crabs
throwing rocks for days
why is throwing rocks into water such a relaxing activity?
playing with double exposure
This dude. Yeah he sells strawberries in his custom pimped out ride. With a tight perm.
chillin between events, with Sawa and her boys Noah and Joshua (we met them last time) and another friend of theirs with her 2 daughters
Last thing, flinging things at the crowd! Kids first! (bags of food science chips)
MOCHI! Holy moly I went up to watch since I was told it's kinda mayhem for mochi tossing. In the end I HAD to participate as these rice pucks were flying at my head. I ended up collecting a bunch of them as one kid kept winging them my way. My hands stung for half an hour afterward from catching them. Here's a short video I fired off...
treasure hunt in the rocks looking for hidden tickets, I found one and won a can of baby bamboo shoot!
fell asleep hard within 2 minutes of getting in the car
No comments:
Post a Comment