Hive

Way back when it was Tanabata, we saw the best matsuri parade ever. There was taiko, acrobats, and a squillion dancers.

Photos of lanterns. Seriously, there were a lot of lanterns.

The Odaka “Wild Horse Catching” event was traditionally an offering of wild horses from local samurai lords to the local temple, where they would be kept as assets. The problem is, they must have run out of wild horses pretty quickly.

On the night of my birthday, Alice and Katie had arranged for the local government to set up a bit of a fireworks show in my honour. It was really too much of them!

This weekend was the Sendai Tanabata Festival, which is kind of a big deal. We’re lucky to be in Sendai for it, so our friends Abigail & Shelly came up from the Fukushima coast to make a weekend of it. And did we ever!