Richmond's In Japan: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

Nagasaki Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year has been celebrated for more than 4,000 years. It came from the ancient markings to celebrate the end of a long winter and the beginning of spring. It celebrates the earth coming back to life and the beginning of the growing cycle. Each year is assigned an animal according to the Chinese Zodiac and 2010 is the year of the tiger. Below is Ericko our Tour Guide for the night, Autum and I went with our local MWR Tours.

There is the Tiger, very pretty.

This is another lantern this one was pretty big.

Yes those are pig heads, you light an incense and make a wish it is suppose to come true.

Lantern Festival Sign

This was going to one of the Shrine's

Lanterns lined down the street in China Town

Autum and I in front of the lanterns

Very, very crowded

This is the year of the Tiger this was my favorite lantern.

We stood in the rain for an hour to watch the dragon dance, then stood another 30 minutes watching it we got really soaked. I just hope we don't get sick :)

Starting the dragon dance. The dragon represents wisdom, power, and wealth. During the dance a dozen performers hold the dragon up on poles. They raise him and lower him using the poles while making him dance. The dragon follows a man carrying a ball with a stick. This is the pearl of wisdom, this represents the dragons way to pursue insight and knowledge.

They were very long and was a great dance to watch.

Dragon Dance this was very neat to watch.

They would go out and come back in, the yellow team and the red team.

I liked the red team the best, might have something to do with that team being all woman.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Saikai Park

Today we followed Jane and her girls to the park for some Grass Sledding and a picnic lunch. Kayleigh finally went down by herself today. She had done it before when we were there but wouldn't go back down alone until today. She had a lot of fun.

Amber and Kayleigh getting ready to race down the hill.

All of us eating lunch except for Amber who is taking the picture and Jo is in the stroller :)

Kayleigh,Grace, and Anna with their ice cream.

Watch these next pictures of Kayleigh, the girls went down this slide pretty fast and you can tell by Kayleigh's face she was a little scared. I got it shot by shot :)

Funny isn't it :)

All three girls at the top going down again :)

On another slide that was in the park :)

We had a great day and the weather was really pretty :)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Todoroki Waterfalls

After the Ninja Camp we stopped by Todoroki Waterfalls. Todoroki, which means thunder, was the name given to the waterfall due to the sound of crashing water upon the rocks below. The fall measures 11 meters tall and has an area of approximately 2500 square meters at the bottom. The bottom of the falls is surrounded by walking paths, so visitors can explore this natural beauty and the surrounding area. We spent about 45 minutes here was nice. Will be even nicer when it is warm and you can go in the water :)

The bridge to cross to the waterfalls :)

Amber,Me,Kayleigh in front of the falls

Ninja Camp

Today we went to Ninja Camp up in Saga in Ureshino City. It was about an hour drive taking the expressway so not to bad. Here they have all sorts of entertainment for the kids especially the younger ones. Below is the entrance to the camp.

This is Yanagi Genshiro most know him as Gen-San he is probably the most fakey performer in Japan. He showed us a traditional street performance they do in Japan with Sticks and used the Sword and paper to show us how sharp the sword was. He said over the demonstration they use Frog Oil on the swords so it wont cut anyone.