what a day!

Today, we decided to go to a cherry blossom festival.  Not one of the big ones, but one that was supposed to have 500 trees.  MA was kind enough to let us all pile into her van and off we went.  Well, maps here are just a bit tricky when the place you want to go is not listed, and the roads all share the same name or none at all.  We drove around the town, didn't see it and stopped to ask some workers for directions.  They spoke no English, but showed us on the map where we needed to go.  We drove in a giant circle and still no festival.  We made our second trip around and asked a security guard for directions.  He showed us where we needed to go.  Now, keep in mind, these folks spoke no English and could have been telling us just about anything.  Back we go around.  This time we see Japanese pink banners.  Woo hoo, we're close!  Well, at least we thought so.  I mean, those banners had to have just been put up after our first trip through, since we missed them.  I mean they still had creases, so they had to be new.  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  We follow the NEW banners and see the traffic, and look up the hill at more banners and by now, we're ready to go to a really neat festival.  We drive up the hill, get directed by guys with those red light saber thingies and end up where?  Right back where we started.  Holy freakin cow.  We see the parking lot, or at least an area of parking and figure out that this is where we need to be.  We go in and are directed into the only parking space that you need to navigate through an obstacle course to get into.  MA's van is not exactly small, so this is no easy task, but she's a champ and manages to get into the space.  We open the doors, when all of a sudden one of the dear parking guys lets us know we need to move over.  Heaven forbid that they can't squeeze one more car in.  All that done, we board a bus to the festival.  We get up the hill, see that the actual festival is around the size of a large baseball field.  A few booths of food and trinkets are there.  There are dancers.  Super cute elderly locals doing the group dance thing.  There was a wrestling ring, but it remained empty and I'm still not sure why it was there.  Oh, there was a little area of 2 mini pigs, goats and mini ponies.  We grabbed a bite to eat, watched some dancing and were ready to head out on our walk through the blooming trees to the park.  

The adorable dancers

Then, the tables came out and this huge pot of sake was set upon the table, with dixie cups.  They mentioned a sake opening ceremony.  Well, you know I couldn't pass that up!  I walked up, a little scared they might chase me off, but they allowed me to pick up 2 dixie cups with sake.  MA didn't care for it, but it was alright to me.  The women ladling it out watched us curiously, probably expecting us to spit it out or something.  

Sake anyone?

Off to the pathway we went.  Well, the blossoms had pretty much bloomed and died.  What a bummer.  There were a few trees with some left and at least we got a couple of pics.  The kids played at the park for a bit and we called it a day.

Or at least we planned on calling it a day.  We decided to stop off at this park that had a giant cactus at the entrance.  We drove in, around the signs that clearly told us "do not enter" and found the place had been closed up.  It was an odd place with giant metal hats around the lot.  Garbage thrown around, and what looked like the belongings of a homeless person were laying around.  We were leaving when MA spotted this really neat tree with these red puffy flowers.  I got out to grab on and ended up getting some fuzzy stuff blown up my nose, but at least managed to snag one off the tree.  Now, we were ready to call it a day.

The puffy flower

Or at least we planned on calling it a day.  We were driving home and decided to take a bit of a detour to Kokusai Street.  Kokusai Street is a mile long shopping street with cute shops, restaurants and street vendors.  You see the craziest things there.  Also, there is an indoor marketplace that has a maze of stalls with vendors selling everything from clothes, knicknacks, sake, fruits and veggies, and so much else.  We grabbed a nice dinner, which was yummy and a fantastic deal.  Seven plates for right around $39, seriously.  

Colorful shisa on Kokusai St.

We're off to check out a food and flower festival tomorrow after church.  I'm hoping we get a little better luck with that festival.  Today was exhausting, but fun.  

Oh, and another little tidbit from the mouth of K.  Driving home, kids are all exhausted and a bit nutty, when K says completely out of the blue, "K's name is WANK".  Nice, my kid calls himself wank.  The kid is already hilarious, especially since he talks about himself in the 3rd person, but now he's calling himself WANK.  Great.

Nite nite, all.