so, this is a holiday usually celebrated in november, but like many things, it seems to be heading towards more commercialization.  seriously, there's the regular 7-5-3, 7 year old girls now have the option of hakama (usually worn by boys and men, and 20 year old women, if they so choose, at their coming of age ceremony...anyway) and i also found some 7-5-3 wear for the new year!  i'm sure if i looked right now i'd find 7-5-3 for spring.  ah well....

when hiro was five, we bought a hakama set, with the intention of using it for tommy.  which we did.  i couldn't find any of the dvds of instructions on how to put on the hakama and kimono, but luckily i found some videos on youtube!  i did a practice run a couple of weeks before we visited the shrine.  i also shleped that thing across the ocean to have some professional pictures taken when we were in the US.  today's photos are from our visit in november.

so, i guess i didn't get this up when i said i would. sorry about that. been really busy this week! last week of at home classes (one more next tuesday, though), the trial student signed up for lessons at the juku, last minute shopping for the little parties i threw for my classes and sasha had 'camp' at the kindergarten. don't forget all the arguing and all-around snottiness the kids have been going through and it's a wonder i got any blogging done this week!

anyway, more photos! the one above was taken because this particular machi wanted to have the dancers have their pictures taken with the foreigners. finally, finally, someone has cottoned on that rachel lives right there and is there every year. i think this is also the machi that made announcements in english as well as japanese. it was a nice surprise.



i remember her from last year.















i remember this boy from the past two years, too.



look at the ceiling of the gion-guruma. beautiful paintings. (yes, i was kneeling in the street for this shot!



so, finally the last of the gion-gurumas have passed, and then comes the mikoshi. first, a drum and flute accompanied by children.







mikoshi, carried by many strong men.



looks tough. actually, they were preparing to lift it high so we could run under it. as this is the last 'stop' on the route, and the street was in full sun by this time, it must have been very tough at this point!





and so, they lifted it. and we ran under (i was first!) and back.



i love this shot, so much action! this is rachel and erica (check out her hair!) this doesn't happen every year, but we also did this two years ago.



and so, the mikoshi moves on. then it's the shrine's priest (high priest?) and usually he is pulled along in a rickshaw. this year, however...





sorry that the last photo is so poor. he really had his kimono and little hat on, truly the shrine guy! LOL must have been hot this year!

well, after that we went back to the house for some lunch. i made guacamole (yum!) and we all ate. it was so great! sadly, though, we had to leave because the kindergarten's summer festival was that evening. *sigh* so many things to do, and not enough time!!

whole matsuri set can be found here.

so, this year we were ready for the gion-gurumas!  i think that staying the night before creates extra work for rachel, but i hope that i could help, even if only a little (of course, i would rather be a big help, but helping a little is better than being a burden!) if nothing else, i did bring a bottle of NZ sav blanc....

rachel and i stayed up late on saturday, drinking wine and enjoying cheese.  and waiting for little ones to go to sleep!  *sigh*  i think tommy was the last hold out, not going to sleep until nearly midnight.  ugh.

so, there are soooo many pictures at flickr, and so many more left on the computer (which i will probably not be uploading to flickr.)  i did post four pictures of the cake, mostly because i took two pictures with two different cameras.  silly me.  so, on to the pictures.  there may or may not be any commentary!



(before--saturday evening.  sorry it's blurry.)



(after--sunday morning.  nearly ready for guests!)



cake by amy



the first gion-guruma is accompanied by children who sing a song.  the following cars have the dancers!



this guy was with the first car.  here he is enjoying a glass of beer at 10:30 am!  it looked great!














our lovely hostess, and her friend/coworker.







...and i think i will finish this tomorrow!

last week was pretty difficult. first week of summer vacation, and now that everyone is in school/preschool, it's a big adjustment for all of us. sasha has been particularly difficult, fighting with everyone and plenty of screaming. with a healthy (not) dose of bullying as well. *sigh* so far yesterday and today have been better, but i can only hope for more improvement!

so, on saturday we drove out to nakatsu (the kids and i) to visit rachel for the nakatsu gion matsuri.  we have been for the past two years, and this year didn't disappoint.  i think the first year we only went on sunday, and last year we went on saturday and stayed the night, but didn't go to the festival i the evening.  the picture above was the last bit of sunlight in the evening to check out the gion-gurumas being put away for the night.  again, a picture post, all from saturday.














it was hot, and hiro was so over it pretty quickly. he wanted me to buy him a drink, a toy, a glow stick, and well, pretty much anything that he might have seen. *sigh*



but the gion-guruma were pretty cool at night, all lit up. there was even a bit of dancing, and we saw the car off of which amy's gion-guruma cake is based.