Paaarteeee!

Last week was our area's summer festival, held in the grounds of the boy's school. It's a surprisingly well run event, very typical of local festivals accross the country. There are stands selling traditional festival foods and games for the kids (and K) to play, dancing, karaoke and fireworks. My boys (yeah, all three of them) are obsessed with kingyou sukui, where they are given a paper scoop to try and catch as many little goldfish as they can before the paper disintegrates. J has honed his technique, and the guy running the stand had to ask him to stop or else there wouldn't be enough fish to last the evening...

The bag at the back belongs to W, he didn't manage to catch any but he was given two as a consolation prize. The front bag is J's - we are not sure how many he caught as they are difficult to count, but we reckon that there are more than twenty in there!

I was assigned to goldfish minder whilst the boys joined thir team for the Bon Odori. The different kodomokai (children's association, based on neighbourhoods) team up to dance in a competition. J and W waited with their friends, while K joined the dad's in downing beer and yakitori...


And then they were off...


I've tried to upload a clip of the dance here, not sure if it will work...

K is bringing up the rear with M perched on his shoulders. The women wearing green yukata (summer kimono) are our neighbourhood mums. Yep, it turns out that I could have participated, too, only no-one had told/asked me... why doesn't that surprise me?

Anyway, the kids had a fantastic time. M cried all the way home as she didn't want it to end.