This past weekend was the Hanno
Matsuri. Besides the Wikipedia description, the best way I can describe it as a giant street festival... with ALL my students. It starts at around 10 am and lasts until 9pm. Because of the insane heat, we decided to wait until the sun went down to come out to play.
Lasted all weekend and within walking distance from our place? We were there!
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| The only group shot on night #1. Robert's best side |
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| Guess what the real motivation for this picture was? |
(psst. It was the guy with the pink shorts)
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| Some shrine they carried around on their shoulders |
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| The all famous Doner Kebab |
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| The boys are obsessed |
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| Steve and Robert |
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| Kids with drums and a kid with a mask to bless the neighborhood shops |
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| Lookin' good Robert |
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| Not quite sure what's going on here, but everything about it screams awesome |
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| Takoyaki |
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| Street food amazingness. Note the picture of the octopus in the left corner. |
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| Bananas!! I strangely expected them to be frozen... they weren't. |
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| Strawberry + chocolate covered bananas |
Girls traditionally wear a
yukata, a more casual form of the kimono, worn in the summertime
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| Kimonos everywhere! So pretty! |
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| Robert and a winky Hello Kitty |
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| More delicious street food (crepes and SnoCone)! We were livin' it UPPP |
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| Ole faithful... Yoshinoya, home of the most amazing beef bowl |
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| Our awesome city of Hanno |
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| Night #2 (much more crowded) |
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| Waiting in line for Doner Kabobs. Again. |
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| Do we look a little sweaty? 90 degrees at 8pm will do that |
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| Group photo! I'm on my tippy toes and Ai-chan is standing on the sidewalk |
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| Pikachu!! Gotta catch 'em! |
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| One of the taiko drum carts. I have NO idea what they're called |
OK. So, on the second night there were these moving carts. They had taiko drums and a bunch of groupies with fans. When some carts encountered each other on the street (there were about six of them moving up and down one street, so encounters happened frequently), they would have some sort of battle- chanting and pounding on their drums. It was loud and crazy and so SO awesome.
We took some video to try and capture the awesomeness. In this first one, you can see/hear the taiko drums and some sort of bell and the groupies. I love it because they get SOO fired up!! They actually start rocking the cart back and forth! You can also see the how many carts there were lined down the street- they are the things that look light BRIGHT little houses
Moving war cart...
War cart in action! Plus you can see how crazy crowded it was! Please note the little girl in the pink kimono sitting ontop of her dad's shoulders, swinging a bag of marbles. Hilarious. I kept waiting for the marbles to wack her dad in the head.
Jaqwerin sensei!! Jaqwerin sensei!! What happens when you run into 3972 of your students? I start to take pictures with them!!! Awardddnesss...
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| Some of my 7th graders. They were thrilled for this photo |
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| Some of my awesome 6th graders. They ACTUALLY were thrilled. |
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| Steamed potato!!! One of my favorite street food buys. I got it BOTH nights |
One of the most awesome experiences I have so far.
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