The Morioka Festival

First, a little background info. Since the devastating earthquake last year, the northern regions of Japan (called the Tohoku region) decided to create a festival that combines the 6 different festivals of the area. The result: one massive collection of polite Asians, standing in alot of different lines for food, entertainment, and the bus.... oh the bus... I'll get to that later.

So for history sakes, I will state that we came with the Wonderful Watsons, The Marvelous Markers, and the Bodacious Broughs. Good Times. If you know them you can spot at least 3 of them in this picture. This is us escaping the crowd just for a moment.

SO I can't really explain what we did that day unless I convey the enourmonsity of "The Crowd." I get that I'm "from Idaho" living in the middle-of-nowhere-Misawa-country-bumpkin-awesomeness, but THE CROWD was insane. Before the above picture was taken, our 4 large Mormon/American families were navigating the crowd that was lining up to see a parade. There was a sidewalk corner, no more than 40 ft in length, that took us 10 minutes to get through. What makes it weird is that we were the only one with strollers, and Japanese are very quiet in uncomfortable situations like this. So We're all pushing sweaty toddlers and infants through a crowd and I'm calling out "Brett!-Brett" so I don't get lost and lets just say I'm getting lots of stares. If you've ever pushed a stroller in a crowd you know that people in general think they just need to get in front of you so it caused for a few Asian toes to be smashed. Sorry! Gomen! Gomen! I tried to be a good American Representative, but if it turns out I started a war... sorry about that America.

Anyways.... after "that corner" half of the families seceded from Mormon/American Union and planted ourselves in a shady spot, far away from what would be considered an "optimal view" of the parade.

 It's alright, Marie had a great time running around with her buds and Mina was sleeping. Besides, people around us seemed to be warded off by the thought of bothering a sleeping baby, so we got lots of space, and at one point a very nice lady kept encouraging me to stand in front of her.
I was able to see the first act, that of the Lantern Festival- You can watch someoneelse's better view here:
The Lanterns

(and yes, it is worth watching).

Apparently, after this first act they dropped the lanterns so no one else got to see it, including our friends that we ditched :(   - who knew, laziness would pay off?

Mina is all legs these days. She is a perfect candidate for a monkey leash. I love how she thinks she is running wild with her monkey while in actuality she is on a rope controlled strictly by mom. Props to whomever invented that.

And who needs parades? We left after the first act and I had to find this "bowl of rice" to take our Christmas card photo with. I was feeling overwhelmed  with the festival until we had this picture taken, then I felt accomplished. Thank you small child who dressed up as a bowl of rice, you made my day complete.

Just another view here.

 Tamzin, Marie & Laura Beth. I think they were playing "Scooby Doo" here. Marie was honorarily inducted into T&L's game as they started calling her "Velma" (b/c she has glasses). Cute :)
Also, this is supposed to be a Castle... or the remnants of one? I have no idea, but we couldn't find the Morioka Castle. Just so you know.


And lastly, the bus line.... oh the bus line.
As we were done we headed to the bus line that takes you back to your car (we parked in a lot, far out of town) we saw the line was very long so we headed to the end of it. We tried to join what we thought was the end until the traffic cop pointed across an intersection. The line went from 3 people- wide on a city sidewalk to an ENTIRE ROAD CLOSED DOWN FILLED FROM SIDE TO SIDE WITH STANDING PEOPLE. THE. ENTIRE. ROAD. People, quiet, facing forward, calm as can be. As I walked by the people my soul WAS CRUSHED. My soul has never been crushed by the sight of a line before. Not even on the hottest day at Disney Land or at an Airport bathroom line after a long flight.

I will give them props. I thought it would take 6 hours to get through the line. I thought I would just lay down and die there, surrender myself to the Japanese city streets and start sending my children out panhandle so we could make a living as we created a new life in the middle of the road with our would-be Japanese neighbors. But no. It took 1 hour to get into a bus and a half hour to get to the car. We were saved.

    At least we got a great picture while we stood in line.

Well, at least one.

The moral of the story is Japanese are better than American's at standing line. Slightly less dramatic, maybe.

Tongue Tied

Little Mina's been tongue tied, which I didn't know was a real thing.  Her tongue has been sealed to the bottom of the mouth.  She had it snipped yesterday and was as brave as can be.  This morning she's been slurping and swishing her saliva around in her mouth because of the new feel.  Proud of you!!!

The Babysitter Writes.. :)

Hi there! My name is Sakura and I am the babysitter from right next door. Right now it's 9:20pm, Brett and Rachel are out dancing ;), and the girls are asleep! Which may sound like a good thing for a babysitter, (easy money right?) but I absolutely love when they're up and full of energy. Marie and Mina chan are the most irresistable, sweetest, and smartest little girls ever. I actually dread their bed time as much as they do. I love cuddling up on the couch watching My Little Pony, playing games that Marie makes up on her own, reading, and snacks! (Even though all Marie ever eats are carrots and string cheese when I'm here). It feels like the few hours go by way too fast... and I must add that they NEVER cry or give me a hard time. How much better can the best job ever get? Thanks Rachel and Brett! Please go out every weekend. :) Just kidding haha.

Sakura in the Spring

I have good news. Tapioca pudding is AMAZING with fresh strawberries. So do yourself a favor and get on that.

In other news we went to Hirosaki to witness the Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) for the first time.

It was quite a treat.

The forecast called for rain, but it stayed off just for us.

Mina chan enjoyed the layers of pink petals. It's kinda like "flower snow."

Marie was dead set on being the navigator. She did a great job getting us around the botanical gardens.

Needless to say, "getting a picture" is a serious task.

So Brett and I hired Marie to take our picture.

That's the best shot of our legs I've ever seen.

 Still at it with the navigating.

 Dad lends a little hand for the next jaunt.

If you read anything on this page, I hope you know, THE APPLES WERE HUGE.

 Here is the mote around the castle. 

 The bridge here is really hard to get a picture on. It's so crowded.

 So you can take a picture from afar,

Or of a of a random person and pretend it's you,  

 Or just take it in front of one of the blown-up pictures for a good one.

Lookin' good B Man!

We ran into some other Americans who were nice enough to take our picture. There are thousands of English teachers from America just livin' it up in Japan apparently and they were one of them. We haven't had luck in the past of asking  Japanese people to take our picture, because I think they think you are offering them a picture with your child. We used to get alot of people asking to just take a picture  of Marie, but thankfully that "charm" has worn off.  But it is fun to be the minority here. If you see any white or black person you automatically just say "hi" because you know they can understand you.

On the way home we found this gem 

Cheers!

Easter Day with Friends in Misawa

Mina is in the 4th percentile. She's so much happier than last year.

Also, her tongue-tie surger is next month! Wish her luck. She's looking forward to being able to cluck like a chicken. And also swallow, that will be fun to.

Marie and Mina shared eggs, finding only the ones with an "M" and a Heart. 

Easter Sunday we invited our favorite friends who's Daddy's were also TDY (temporary duty a.k.a. out of town). Also we collected 2 more kids from my friends who were taking a trip to China. We would keep their 5 year old and 1 year old for the rest of the week.

Inspecting the first egg.

My friends Chelsea and Whitney did a great job hiding the eggs for our tiny hunters. This is them on our tiny front yard that I love so much.

 

Lilianna and Marie.

Mina and Tristan, her new "brother" for the week.

Keaton, Marie, and Mina.

Mina running down our street! It was so nice to have a sunny day. After over 230 inches of snow this  year WE EARNED OUR SPRING!

Happy Easter!

Earliest Easter Ever

Brett's off to Blabablama soon so we called the Easter Bunny and asked him to come a week early.  

Here's Mina feelin' for eggs.

To my surprise Mina really got into this. She helped me (and the Easter Bunny) put it together so I think she felt invested in the process.

Props to Grandma Mildred for the cute jammies!

So considering we've had over 200 inches of snowfall this year we couldn't have a egg hunt outside. And since Dad is leaving soon, we had to do it at night... our solution:

Glow in the dark easter egg hunt!

It produced terrible pictures, but trust me, much fun and excitement was had. We should make Christmas a glow-in-the-dark kind of holiday also.... .hmmm...

Before we started the hunt we had a little FHE lesson. Talked about how Grandma Harriett is in Heaven and how we get to see her again someday because of Christ's resurrection. Teaching this to a 3 year old is really sweet. Marie is receptive and full of love. I couldn't ask for a better job in the whole world than being her and Mina's Mom.

It looks as if Brett is bestowing mystical powers on this egg he's giving to mina... or maybe the flash was on way too bright...

The Spoils

Note Marie's hair cut also. Another one of Mom and Dad's "chop jobs." However, she pulls it off quite nicely.

Happy Easter!