Hachinoe Enburi Festival

I really want to go here...

The Hachinohe Enburi Festival was originally held about 800 years ago to petition the gods for a good growing season and a bountiful harvest. Today it has evolved into a major event that is intended to also hasten the coming of spring. Particpants perform ritual dances and wear special costumes that mimic clothing worn by farmers hundreds of years ago. They also wear elaborate headgear which is the key to making their petitions come true. The headgear is considered sacred. Dancers’ actions resemble the planting of rice and other farming actions.

Other dancers dress like ancient gods of good fortune. They dance in groups of five and there are about 40 different groups that take part throughout the four days of the festival.

But, Jeff is out of town. I wonder if I am brave enough to take the girls there on my own? We are also hoping to go to see the Great Wall of China this Spring, however, we are currently having tons of passport issues. Will red tape keep us from visiting China?

When we returned from our trip to the US over this past summer we swore on a stack of bibles we would never take Miss Lily on another airplane, except to leave here for good. We are telling ourselves that she is different now than she was then. It is almost a year's difference. When I took her to the US at 9 months I swore I would never do it again. When I took her to Hawaii at 15 months I swore I would never take her on a plane again. But, this last time going to America was soooo bad. I guess it is like child birth, the memory isn't so bad as the experience. I am sorry to everyone who has shared a plane with me and my screamer. If we are able to go I will take some nifty pictures of Lily at the Great Wall of China and she will have that for the rest of her life, the screaming if it occurs will only last in that moment in time.

I am so worried about what I will feed her. I am so worried about the screaming. In the end I think it will be worth it. So pray for my passport issues to be resolved unless you plan to be on an airplane traveling from Japan to China in Spring, then you might want to pray for my passport to get lost in the mail.