Week 49: Up North!

The travel starts!  These might be a bit long as we tended to get a lot into each day.  

So, as you might remember, on Sunday we went up to Kyoto. I planned for a boat to take us north, and it was leaving on Monday. At 11:30 at night.  WELL! Ok then!  So Monday we explored Kyoto a little! 

Kyoto is, like, the history center of Japan. So there is LOTS to see, just everywhere.

Like random Monk statues.

This is Higashi Honganji, a large Buddhist temple.

It was lovely, but most importantly, close by.

We checked out the buildings and the historical bits hanging around.

this is a hair rope. Yup, made out of hair.

see?

we were there in time to listen to chanting time! It was so cool!

We went back to the room, because it was hot and mom was suffering Jetlag.  Dad and I went on a walk and found....

A fan shop!

They were hand making fans! It was incredible to watch. 

After, we picked mom back up and went to see a garden.

A beautiful model appears!

Edward displays the boat tea house.

This is Shōsei-en Garden, famous for having many kinds of tea houses.

Look at the size of those!

Oh, and we went to Kobe tower.

Finally, it was dinner time, so we did the age-old tradition of walking down the street and finding a place and ordering by pointing to the display in the window. :)

This is how I order.

It worked out to our favor.

When it was time, we hopped on the train and traveled to where the boat was departing from.

Nice place, huh?  I got an upper bunk.

The boat took ALL Tuesday to get there, so all day we just sat around.

we ate

we admired the view

we did handy projects

and we slept. a LOT.  There was so much sleeping.  And no wi-fi or cell signal.

Hm...wonder why not...

It was nice to have a day off, and mom and dad got rid of some of their jetlag.  Oh! And for lunch, I had a Rice burger.  No, so, it's beef inside, but instead of a bun, they have compressed rice!

first I'd heard of one.

actually really tasty.

So, we landed and finally got to our room by 11:00, so we were READY for sleep again, despite the easy day and all the napping.

Wednesday, we were up in Sapporo, and I'll admit, I didn't do as much research as I shoulda on what to do up there.  But then, I had a lot of trouble deciding what to see and how long to stay in places, and etc.  Oh well, it worked out.

SO! We went to the temple.

after open house and before dedication, so all we got to do was walk around outside.

And we went to the historical village!

cool, but so much walking.

creepy mannequins, but it did help show what was going on.

cradle board?...nah.

those little gray things are silk worms.  There are no wild silkworms any more.

Like all good historical areas, they had a section just for kids!

ring toss!

games!

stilts! They took a different approach, these were tough.

See? All the weight is going back! I kept falling off.

and This thing!

Longest one I've ever seen.

That was still a lot to do, so we finally made it back and only ventured into town for dinner.  Ramen!

those were big bowls, but I love restaurant ramen.

Thursday, we got back ON the train and went down to Aomori.  It was a 5+ hour train ride.

Aomori is the main reason I went North (also to escape the heat) because there is a MAJOR festival there called the Nebuta Matsuri.  This is what the town is known for.  It is what brings in the tourists.

and I can't blame them.

The Nebuta Matsuri is a lantern festival.  These lanterns are almost the width of the entire street and longer than a car.  They are balanced on TWO giant wheels and full grown men (and teens) are underneath it, pushing it along. It is two wheels, because they don't just pull it straight down the street, they go to the right and left at different intervals and sometimes it will "bow" to the people watching and I even saw one do a slow pirouette!

Each lantern is accompanied by

a cheer squad in front.

Then the lantern 

then a drum squad

Followed by a pipe and cymbals group.

It is VERY LOUD.

Of course, That only happened after sunset.  Before hand, I took them around to see what a Japanese festival is like during wait time.

there was a Shamisen showdown

odd mascots 

a museum (that's new, actually.)

fun traditional costumes

Fair food.  (Meat on a stick! ALL KINDS)

SOMETIMES crafts

And here's a fun story. We knew that we would want to sit down for the parade, but all the roadside seats were very obviously staked out.  Well, dad mentioned renting a seat, and I wasn't sure how to go about it, so we chatted with one guy for a little who was standing by his area.  Unsure of if he was renting, we went to walk away, when I heard him put on his selling voice, saying...something.  So I went back and asked if the seats were for rent.  So he gave us three!

reserved seats!

second row!

FOR FREE! :D

we were all happy about this.

So we had a great view of many wonderful things.

now THERE'S a big drum.

the DETAIL

Because the festival is so big, we couldn't find a place to stay in town, so we rode the train to the next nearest town (mostly) and stayed there.

Friday, we woke up...ok, not THAT early, but we woke up and rode the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Sendai.

travel is tiring.

they look fast! (and dorky. Who decided on that color?)

Sendai was interesting because we were there for Tanabata. The star festival.  Remember me mentioning how it was the 7th day of the 7th month?  Well, up north, they go by the LUNAR calendar, which means it's in August.  Which I didn't mind at all.  This is also one of the bigger festivals in Japan.

Again, because it was a big festival, it was a little difficult to find lodging, but we did!  It was a traditional tea-house.

pretty!

We all know what that means. Futons on the floor. I mentioned that my parents don't do so well, so they said they'd find their fluffiest futons.

Yes, that is three full futons and a cushion for each.  They said it was very comfy.

Our host led us through an authentic Japanese tea ceremony. (I hate green tea so much) and it was very calming and meditative. Very interesting to see and participate in a ceremony.

He asked us if we were there for Tanabata, and we said yes, we were going to rest that night and plan for the next day.  He said "Oh, but the fireworks are tonight!"  ...Well, I guess we're going tonight!

Well, we shoulda waited, I'll say. We were in a lousy place for the fireworks. We saw some, but buildings were in the way. And when we walked closer we found CROWDS.  Like you wouldn't believe.  There were some lovely Tanabata decorations though.

and traditional wear.

bamboo with the wishes.

they're bagging them up for the night.

So the next day (Saturday) we went down and saw the festival proper. And I enjoyed it WAY more than the Tanabata festival down here! For one thing, it was more participatory.

we wrote wishes

made bamboo leaf boats

pokemon lanterns

tanabata windsocks

and we got new hats!

you never wondered where I got my silliness from, did you?

Tanabata is about lovers meeting, so very romantic setups. 

and we found the BEST dessert EVER. Frozen strawberry flakes with sweetened condensed milk and strawberry jam.

 And the BEST part is, I finally learned what the parts of Tanabata are!  (Hey, I'm a teacher, this excites me)

Ok, so we have the traditional "windsocks"

which represent weaving and how our lives weave together in harmony.

And cranes

which are long life and messengers to the gods.

And the fishnet

which is both for good fishing and for good fortune.

And the Kimono (a paper one they hang up)

which brings good sewing artistry.

The purse

celebrating frugality and asking for money.

And the trash bag!

symbolizing cleanliness and the importance of saving. It's also handy because they put their extra paper scraps in it.

So that was really neat!  There were a bunch of really different windsocks

these are SO TALL.

and so elaborate!

some of the shorter ones, actually.

 and they hung the bamboo everywhere

everywhere.

And then we had crepes! :D

We were wiped out by the end, so we went back and hung out the rest of the evening. (no late night partying for us!

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting, but then had to go catch our train to Tokyo!

Wow! What a week! :D