Happy Family: February 2009

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February 2009
Welcome to our Blog photos from February!

Here is the aftermath of a tornado that somehow just hit our living room area (here I am trying to pretend that our living room doesn't look like this very often).

Winter Festivals!
February is the time for snow and winter festivals, and we went to several this year. The really big snow festival is up on the north island of Hokkaido, in the town of Sapporo. We didn't get to go this year, but we hope to before we leave. The snow festivals we did go to were a little closer, and didn't require spending the night in a big communal room on a ferry (like you do when traveling up to Hokkaido)!

The Lake Towada "Snow and Lights Fantavista"

Does anyone know what a Fantavista is, exactly? Hmmm.
Poor Andrew (the boy on the left, seen here with friend Sammy) hates wearing hats. I think I might know why...

We went with a family from church we are friends with. This is the entry walkway.

Inside a snow cave.

Katelyn giving a hug to Gabe, who is her age.

Whatever you do, please be sure to Whatch your footing!

There was a big sledding hill that had been built, complete with snow stairs.

Ice sculptures.

There were a bunch of igloo-type snow caves with different themes. There was one made to look like a church, one that was an actual bar, and several others. This one is dedicated to love, I suppose. There was a tower of candles in wine glasses on the inside.

Our friend Doug and his little boy Gabe, eating something adventurous--a big bowl of small clams that had evidence of some other squiggly creature having lived on the outside of their shells.

At the festival.

Dave and Andrew paid to ride on a long tube pulled by a snowmobile.

A video showing part of the evening's show--Japanese banjo-type instruments. I believe they are called shamisen.
They also had a drum demonstration, and Dave and our friend's son Max went up to help with the drumming.

And now to change gears, a fairly large statue outside a Buddhist cemetery.

Andrew on a random playground in Aomori.

Hirosaki Lantern Festival
We also went to the Lantern Festival in Hirosaki, which has quickly become one of our favorite towns. It is a college town, and a very picturesque town. It is also where Hirosaki Castle is (if you have been keeping up with our photos, you might remember pictures of it). We have been several times before, and we'll go again in April when the cherry blossom festival is going on. Cherry blossom viewing is a big deal all over Japan, like a national pastime, and Hirosaki is one of the famous places to view cherry blossoms in the North.

The Lantern festival featured--you guessed it--lanterns made of snow. They had painted pictures placed in them, that were lit from behind when it got dark.

As you can see, some of the lanterns were sponsered by companies and other groups.

This one is from JR (Japan Rail), and the part in the middle is supposed to look like a Shinkansen (Bullet Train), which is why Andrew particularly wanted his picture next to it.

On one of the pretty red bridges.

Here's the castle in wintertime. When we are there again to see cherry blossoms, we are planning on taking some family pictures around here.

A particularly nice painted window on a lantern.

An interesting tree.

This sign has a QR code on it, which when you take a picture of it with a properly programmed cell phone, will give you certain information. It has become pretty common in Japan (and in Korea, apparently). This one seems to get you a photo of the above pictured tree.

On the grounds of the castle.

Andrew was just itching to take one of these apples.

I took this photo to show the system used to protect pine trees from being damaged by snow in the wintertime. Ropes come down from a long pole, and are tied to the ends of branches.
The first time we saw these it was December, and I thought maybe they were starting to put out Christmas decorations. (Despite that there aren't many Christians in Japan, Japanese people seem to have figured out the decoration-secular part of Christmas customs.)

Hirosaki Castle

Some of the snow sculptures were cartoon characters. There was one of Tom and Jerry, but the day we went was rainy, so none of them looked very good anymore.

A snow building.

A very large Torii gate with lanterns hung from it.

These girls started talking to us when we sat down. They spoke some English, and were interested in talking with our kids. Usually when people approach us, it's because they want to talk to the kids.

Food at a stand there. We were interested in the drinks at the bottom of this photo (just small glasses with pictures of apples on them, and sealed at the top), but the woman at the stand told us they were "sake" (Japanese rice wine). Everything in Tohoku (Japan's Northern region) seems to be apple-based, so I guess apple sake shouldn't have surprised me.

Note the huge snail-like creatures on the plate.
There were two old women at this stand, and one of them came out to talk with Katelyn (and then Andrew, who was wandering around) for an extended period of time, and stroked their little hands and hair. It is pretty common for the kids to get attention (especially from women) as we get further away from where we live (the people near the air base are pretty used to Americans).
For situations like this, we're trying to learn a bunch of useful phrases, like "nihongo wa amari hanasemasen"--which means, "I can't speak very much Japanese."

See the teepee-like structures? They are built to protect the plants and bushes from feet of heavy snow.

Just as we were leaving, more people started showing up, and the lanterns lit up as it got dark. Apparently we missed the whole point! Oh well, we were tired, and we'd seen everything.

Here's one at the entrance of the castle grounds all lit up.

Making Valentine's Day cookies

Andrew's Birthday Party
Andrew finally got his friend party, exactly one month after his actual birthday.
My motto seems to be 'better late than never.'

This is the photo we used for "pin the birthday hat on the Andrew," which has become a birthday tradition in our family since Andrew's first birthday.

The party was supposed to be an indoor picnic theme, so we bought sunglasses for all the kids, and they ate on the floor, picnic style.

Singing "Happy Birthday"