Matsuri | Japanese Crackers

We had another busy weekend, not that that is a bad thing…

Saturday was the annual Undoukai, the daycare gymnastics day where Layla and her classmates get to dance in front of a bunch of parents and enough recording equipment to blanket a small town with video surveillance. I, myself, only had two cameras… luckily, because the first one’s batteries died. (Good planning on my part).

We got to the school where the whole event was taking place and there were already a bunch of people there and things were already set up. Layla, unfortunately, cried when she realized she needed to go with her class instead of her parents… but once she was alone, she was fine.

The classes of kids, ranging from 1 to 6 years old, all marched out and lined up for the introductions. They put on a song and then a dance for us… one video is posted on youtube and embedded below. I might post others later…

Layla did a really great job, not only at this dance but all her events. It wasn’t all just singing and dancing – there was even a foot race! Her class is big enough that they ran two races, Layla was in the second. However, when the first race started Layla got up from where she was perched only to be called back by the teacher. When it was her actual turn, she won her race by a mile and had they not strung a pink line at the finish line, she’d have actually come in first. Instead, she stopped and waited for everyone else. Everyone else weren’t so courteous, running through the finish line without stopping.

Not much of a race, is it?

Then the “parent-participation” events took place. Tamie, being six months pregnant, wasn’t in much condition to participate leaving only one other parent. Dammit. I raced with Layla and helped her collect up beanbags in another game. She started getting tired by the last game, so climbed up on me to sleep without letting go. Luckily, that was her last event for a while and she could take a rest while she waited. Tamie gave her a juice box but got warned by a daycare staff that only tea was acceptable. What the f**k is up with the b*llsh*t rules against juice in this country? Hospitals and daycare events. I don’t get it.

One other thing I don’t get. The parents-only tug-of-war. In the middle of the kids’ daycare event, there’s a scheduled parents-only tug-of-war. The day where the kids are supposed to be the centre of attention, there’s a PARENTS-ONLY tug-of-war. On a day with already too many events that people weren’t interested in, there’s a PARENTS-ONLY TUG-OF-WAR! (no offense to any of the other kids or parents, but if Layla’s not in it, I wasn’t watching). I wasn’t too happy with that one. And it really annoyed me when they took 10 minutes to figure out the teams… make two lines — oops, one has three more people in it, so they asked for more volunteers from the crowd. One guy volunteers. Two more people are needed? What can we do – ask for more volunteers! Switching one person to the other team is NOT an option… until they figure the teams are unbalanced and swap around some of the people. When we finally tugged-of-warred, my team lost. Twice! (yes, because once wasn’t nearly enough of a waste of time) For me, the whole thing was a black mark on an otherwise great day. (the event, not the outcome) Next time, Tamie’s doing it.

The final parent-kid event was a folk dance that Layla, thankfully, wanted to do with Tamie. She was quite happy to dance with Layla and I was quite happy to let them. All the kids stood around in the main area with a parent while the folk music started playing… I watched and recognized the tune almost immediately. THE CHICKEN DANCE! Good thing Tamie spent all those hours learning it in Canada!

Layla had a blast dancing with her Mom!

The highlight of the day, at least for me outside of Layla’s fantastic performance(s), had to be the folk dance. Layla looked so happy dancing with her Mom and Tamie looked even happier dancing with her daughter – it was a special moment. But that’s not what got me. In the middle of the dance, a bunch of kids stopped dancing and crowded around one spot. A praying mantis had someone got their attention and curiousity got the better of them. A lot of them. Until one poor little guy got the big bug on his hand and ran away crying, it still stuck to him! Mean to laugh at? Maybe. But hilarious none the less.

Don’t bug the bugs.

Once all the events were over, everyone got gifts for participating. Parents got a box of tissues and a bottle of water, kids got toys and books. The box of tissues is especially handy because in a few weeks time we need to make a donation to the daycare of, you guessed it, a box of tissues. Timing really is everything!

After we left, we went for lunch with Tamies’ parents. They parked in a lot near a Chinese restaurant that validated parking so we had a Chinese lunch. Turned out to be a decent place in Ebina that we never tried before, so win-win!

We joined the grandparents for the rest of the day because in Isehara there was the annual doukan festival, a big festival where they shut down the streets, set up hundreds of booths for games and food and have parades of dancing and singing. We took it all in, tasting many a street meat and a many-er a treat (Layla was spoiled this day, moreso than others). There was even a hurricane potato here, though a bit different from Hokkaido as there were four dipping flavours to choose from. Note for next time: stay away from the garlic! The night wrapped up with a stage show from a local dance studio which was interesting — interesting because we discovered Layla really gets into Lady Gaga…

As the festival closed, we headed back home to get some well-earned sleep.

For pictures, check out the gallery! Sorry for the ordering… I had to use two cameras which screws things up. I’ll fix it, eventually…

Daycare event images! (and festival too)

Today was just like any other Saturday – we tried to sleep in only to be woken up by the kid who never wakes up early on a weekday. Ah well, sleep is overrated anyways. With an early start, we had the whole day in front of us! So what would we do? … yep, it was another Saturday – like any other Saturday we had no idea what to do. When Tamie asked me the night before I told her I didn’t want to do anything – I was too tired and I think getting sick to boot. The shining sun outside and the bouncing Layla underfoot made going back to bed impossible… so we did what anyone would do – we called my parents.

Layla is always excited to call Nonni and Chinni and they always make time to watch Layla on the webcam and we did just that. Hurricane Layla made a mess while her grandparents watched, her dad laughed and her mom worked hard. Nonni asked what we were doing… still no idea. Maybe going to the beach or something… we’d figure it out.

After about an hour, Nonni and Chinni got bored (or just tired. or both?) so we said our good-byes and tried to figure out what to do. Layla made it easy – she decided to go lay down and take a nap. I don’t know if it was the heat, the waking up early, getting older or just plain boredom but I’ve never seen her go lay down by herself. I didn’t complain though as it let me play around with this new blogging software. Tamie went out for a while and I stayed with Layla as she slept.

Once the kid woke up, she immediately demanded to know where her mom was. Luckily Tamie called 10 minutes later to tell me, so we went and met her for lunch. Macau Meadows in Ebina – used to be decent but now? Not even the cute waitresses are worth it. The food has gotten progressively worse in the two years we’ve lived here… so much so that I think that’s the last time we’ll eat there. At least until the next time.

As we ate, Tamie mentioned there was a festival going on in Hon-Atsugi, a neighbouring city only two stations down (three minutes away by train). She seemed interested and I was curious so we decided to go check it out. Who doesn’t love a good festival? Street meat on sticks and cold beer at marked-up prices! Throw in a million people and 40 degree heat and you got yourself a grand old time!

At Ebina station there were already about a thousand people waiting around to head down to Hon-Atsugi. It’s easy to pick out the festival-goers as they are all wearing yukatas (summer kimonos). That, and the fact they’re standing on the same platform we are to get on the same train. The small crowd in Ebina was just a hint of what was to come!

Hon-Atsugi was packed. If I knew how to post pictures on here properly, I would post one. But pictures wouldn’t do justice to the scene we were in – throngs of people out enjoying the festivities. A throng, by my estimation, is just under a hundred thousand… and there were many throngs.

Layla discovered the joy of riding on my shoulders as she saw other kids propped up on unfortunate fathers sweating under the weight of their own offspring and wanted to join in. Always happy to oblige, I precariously balanced her atop my shoulders, trying to find a good gait to walk that didn’t bump into anyone and didn’t shake her too much. It seemed to work out well as she was enchanted just watching the moving crowds around her. I was jealous of her vantage point, but not nearly as jealous as Tamie =)

We picked up some chicken (on sticks) and beer (overpriced, but cold… and oh so delicious!) as we walked towards our ultimate goal – the big field where the fireworks were happening. Every summer festival in Japan has fireworks and every fireworks display is massive. Even our little town of Ebina has a summer festival with a decent fireworks display. Hon-Atsugi isn’t such a little town and their fireworks display was more than decent! To put it another way, Layla was able to watch the fireworks in Ebina but she got so scared tonight in Hon-Atsugi that she passed out. She forced herself to fall asleep just so she wouldn’t have to endure another second of sheer awesomeness. That’s how awesome it was.

Actually, the fireworks were definitely a good show – unfortunately, Layla was definitely scared and did put herself to sleep. We watched with at least a million of our closest neighbours as the sky lit up in various colours and shapes. Did you know they can make fireworks that look like hearts and happy faces? Even cartoon characters! I was disappointed there was no Mario though. The grand finale was called Niagara Falls and it was a display that stretched across the river and rained fireworks down upon us, looking like (surprisingly) a waterfall! It was a good way to end a good show.

Once the show ended, the fun began. The only problem with jamming a million people into a small area to watch fireworks is the battle royale you have to fight through when leaving. Luckily, people (mostly) are polite and stream out slowly and steadily. There is one benefit to having a kid on your shoulders – when someone cuts you off or steps on your foot you got to legs at head height that might ‘accidentally’ kick them.

It only took an hour to get out of the sea of people and there were no serious injuries (at least to us), so we counted our blessings and decided to walk home. It’s a nice feeling to know that we didn’t have to follow that stream of people back into the train station and cram into a sardine can for a long ride home.

All in all, not a bad day for doing nothing.