What a fine time in the US of A

Thank you to everyone who helped make our trip to the US a great success.  Mom and Dad, of course, and Uncle Ben as well, plus the entire Team Tennessee, with a special thank you to Uncle Richard for putting us up and putting up with us for almost two weeks.

Samantha is still talking about Uncle Ben's stinking cat, Wee Wee and Tee Tee, and all the critters up at Uncle Steve and Aunt Peggy's place.  She had a great time, and Mommy and Daddy couldn't possibly ask for anything more.

Philly was wonderful, relaxed and quiet.  I wish I'd made it down town more than I did, but beers at Sardine was a lot of fun.  Lots of love to the whole Philly crowd, you know who you are!

How 'bout some pictures?

Yabunelli, the Shiratsuka Summer Festival

Tonight was the eve of Yabunelli, the local Shiratsuka summer festival.  There were lots of stalls set up around the local shrine selling junk food of all kinds, and lots of folks milling about.  We had a light dinner, then donned our summer yukata and headed down.  Afterwards, Samantha had her first fireworks experience.  It was a lot of fun.

Tanabata, the Star Festival

Tanabata, the Star Festival

      We dressed Samantha up in her summer kimono and took her to the river for the Tanabata festival.  The link above refers to the wikipedia entry for Tanabata, which is fascinating but a bit long.  The short version is that kids in Japan decorate a sprig of bamboo with slips of paper upon which they write wishes.  On July 7th, tradition is to take those sprigs of bamboo and toss them in the nearest river.  A whole festival is built up around this tradition, and we waded right in.  There was dinner with Grandma, Jiji, Hitoshi Yuri and Risa, and of course Backy and Minouri.  Then there was a visit to Daimon Kannon, and a photo op in a bamboo glade.  Much fun was had by all.

Cabin fever

We are all hunkered down waiting for Typhoon #4 to roll in, and getting a bit rambunctious.

Playing with the deer in Nara Park

I worked this Saturday, so we wanted to do something fun on Sunday.  The weather was brilliant, so we collected Jiji and headed to Nara to see the Great Buddha and his semi-tame deer.  A fine time was had by all, but the cultural aspect paled in comparison to the feeding-the-wildish-deer aspect.

Ise on a Saturday

K, Samantha, Jiji and I went to Ise this Saturday to do some shopping and pay our respects.  We didn't actually make it to the shrine, but lunch was duly had.