As promised....here is the Mokoshi video!

Party Party Party

We had a very busy weekend here in Japan. Every summer each neighborhood has a huge celebration. The purpose is to bring together neighbors and to bring luck to the neighborhood for the upcoming year. All of the men get together and carry something called a Mokoshi (not sure if I spelled that correctly???). They carry it up and down the streets of the neighborhood and they lift it and shake it and chant a little saying "Soya....hi....Soya....hi....." over and over and over again. The thought is that the louder they yell and the harder they shake the Mokoshi....the more luck the neighborhood will have. It takes about 2 hours total to get the Mokoshi through the entire subdivision.....lots of hills.....lots of shaking.....and a few rest stops. It is Japanese tradition to partake in a little Sake (Japanese rice wine) at each rest session. As you march through the neighborhood all of the people come out of their houses to watch. A few of them even squirt down the Mokoshi carriers in hopes of cooling them down a bit. Many of the people join in the march and a long crowd of people end up following the Mokoshi back to the park. Once at the park, the participants get to eat some Japanese hot dogs and snow cones and they even have a little ceremony where the carriers drink Sake out of a small wooden box while dancing and singing. It was a lot of fun to watch.....but even more fun to watch Calvin as he took part in this annual Japanese tradition. It was pretty cool that our neighborhood welcomed us to their celebration and let us take part in it. The kids even had a kids sized Mokoshi to carry....but no Sake for them.


Everyone had a really great time but we were all exhausted by the end of the weekend. Did I mention that the guys had to carry the Mokoshi in a parade of Mokoshi's on Sunday.....they were so worn out! It was like a little competition....all of the Mokoshis shaking and moving at the same time to see who could lift theirs the highest and yell the loudest. Our neighborhood was doing pretty good until the lanterns on the top of our Mokoshi caught on fire! No worries though, a little Japanese man hopped on top and doused the burning lanterns with Sake....he soon found out that you should not put out a fire with Sake and just tossed the flaming lanterns to the ground....meanwhile, the men kept chanting and shaking!Here is a picture of our friend Robert and his son Matthew along with Calvin, the kids, and Kenzie's best friend, Jennifer!

And Kenzie and Jennifer riding the Tyco drum float....drumming away.......


After the Mokoshi parade there was a really big festival at our park. There were drums and dancers and lots of Japanese festival food.....crepes, cotton candy, snow cones, hot dogs, tacoyaki (the ever famous fried balls of octopus meat...mmm..mmm), and of course......sake! (Which of course, we steered clear of and stuck to Japanese soda and milk tea (yummy yummy)!

Welcome!

It is official......I am venturing into the great unknown "blog" world. We feel so blessed to be able to spend time in Japan and we hope that you read along as we share in our adventures. We have been in Japan since April and are settling in quite nicely. Michelle is becoming more comfortable as as a "housewife" and is getting quite skilled at hanging clothes on the line!

Calvin is settling into his new job and thanks to his new promotion, is getting used to being called "Senior Chief"


Kenzie just finished up a city-wide dance competition where her team won 3rd place! Dance class is pretty interesting....everyone speaks Japanese (except for Kenzie) and the ballet instructor is Russian!As for Christian, he has officially discovered video games. It is hard to pull him away, but when we can he enjoys riding his bike up and down the hills of our neighborhood and taking in the sites of Japan. We just never know what he will do next!
Carson is settling in at Japanese school. He loves riding the tomato bus and is picking up on some Japanese words and phrases. His teacher, Ishiwatasensei, says that he is even able to follow some Japanese commands. We love it when he sings his little Japanese songs.
Well, that should catch you all up. Stay tuned for more updates and more pictures!