A few weeks ago we went to Nihonmachi Nites in Seattle. It was a small festival to promote Seattle's Nihonmachi Japanese businesses.
Bryan wore his dinosaur yukata again, and I wore a UNIQLO goldfish yukata. Bryan was again in a bad mood, but it was because I woke him up early from his nap (bad mommy!) so that we could get there in time for the children's yukata contest. It was the main reason I wanted to go, so that Bryan could show his dinosaur yukata that mommy made for him. It turned out that the festival was running late and we had to wait, so we went to some of the shops to look around.
One of the shops, Momo, was holding a Spam Musubi contest. I don't remember what Spam tastes like, I only remember not liking it when I was a kid. So readers please tell me, is Spam any good?? These Spam Musubi look rather good:
This one with the quail eggs was the winner of the Spam Musubi contest. It looks delicious!
Bryan was very fascinated with a tree, and had a good time pointing at it and waiting for me to say "tree" for him. I had a good time trying to catch a picture of him doing a disco dancing pose!
Silly boy! Wearing a yukata doesn't slow him down one bit!
Piggyback rides while wearing yukata!
Only two kids showed up for the yukata contest. I think there were supposed to be more, as I did see more kids in yukata later on in the day, but I think there was confusion because of the late start.
Eep! Squirmy baby!
Bryan won best ensemble. He loves his prize, a koinobori toy!
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I've been rather busy!
Last month, my family went to one of our local Bon Odori festivals. My niece, Atlantis, came with us and we had a great time dancing in the festival.
Bryan was in a bad mood right before going to the festival, so we had to put his yukata on later.
These beautiful mizuhiki kanzashi were for sale at the festival, I regret not buying one!
The festival was started by a performance by Okinawa Kenjin-Kai Taiko. My son loves them and has seen them perform twice this year. They invited everyone to come up and dance for the last song, but Bryan was too shy!
There was plenty of delicious food, including cold somen noodles, and Japanese style hot dogs. We had gyudon and shaken ice. The gyudon was delicious, and had celery in it which I hadn't seen before. I think next time I make gyudon I will add celery!
Children's lantern parade, led by Lion dancers.
Bryan in his dinosaur yukata!! This yukata is very popular, many people ask about it!
This girl was very cute, we loved her yukata + boots combination!
Everyone lining up to begin dancing. At first only a few people danced, but near the end of the festival, there were so many dancers that there were at least 4 dance circles and it was very crowded.
My husband tried to take some pictures of me dancing the first dance, Mikokoro, but most of the pictures turned out blurry (I need a better camera).
Festival dancers. I think this was the dance Isson Ippin.
Aww, kisses! Even though he was grumpy before the festival, Bryan had a great time. The temple had a little playground, so Bryan and daddy spent most of the time playing on the slides.
