yoshi had to be back early on sunday for a lecture, and he wanted to go to the festival in the evening, so we didn't go to omuta until late afternoon. we had dinner with his parents, and then we went. we were actually too late for the 'baby tasting', which sasha and hiro have done when they were babies. i was quite disappointed! but we went to look at the parade, and i actually got a video. this is one of the 'dragons', paused at a turn in the route, probably waiting for the previous group to move.





sasha was scared out of her pants and kept asking for mommy! poor little girl. after watching two dragons up close (the video is of the second one), we left. it was getting late, and we wanted to go to an onsen. on the way, however, we found another baby tasting group, and tommy got his opportunity after all. i have video of that (and pictures, of course) but will have to post about that tomorrow.