Obon Weekend

Bryce had off Thursday and Friday of last week so we had a nice long weekend all together. We

headed to the Osaka Aquarium. I was frustrated because we had arrived what we thought was an hour before the aquarium was even supposed to open. However, as we walked into the entrance, they were already allowing people in and there were already a LOT of people. It was a neat aquarium with the biggest attraction being a four story tall tank in the center of the building which contained huge rays, fish, sharks and two whale sharks...those suckers were BIG and they were actually young so I can't even imagine what it would be like to see them in the ocean at full size. The kids loved the aquarium. Tanner's favorites were the otters and dolphins. Brynn loved the dolphins, of course. Isaac thought the whale sharks were the best. It was a great aquarium and it was indoors with air conditioning which was very beneficial with all of the people that were there. Because it was a holiday weekend, we were told that it would be busy. We were hoping that by getting there early, we would miss most of the crowds. We were correct because when we got out of the aquarium about two hours later....this is what the line looked like just to get to the stairs which then wound up and into the building. There had to have been at least a three to
four hour wait. Under that yellow awning was just more and more people. And have I mentioned how hot and humid it is in Japan, it makes Florida in August look tame! Every person had a fan and was waving it madly to get some type of relief from the heat. Next, we headed around the corner to the Biggest Wheel in the World. It was a REALLY BIG ferris wheel and the one thing that Tanner had asked to go on. We had an amazing view of Osaka and were up even higher than the bridges. It was a beautiful city view and I imagine that at night it is even more amazing! It was a slow moving ride and Bryce snapped this picture
of the kids and I, but soon after he made one of the kids go and join him so that the weight in the car would not be so uneven. My husband the daredevil! After leaving Osaka, we headed home to enjoy an afternoon of swimming at the pool. I had mentioned that it was a holiday weekend. In Japan, during July and sometimes August, depending on where you live, they celebrate Obon Week. Wikipedia had this to say....Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. We loved it because it meant we had Daddy to ourselves for 4 days straight!

On Saturday, the Bingham's (yep, for those of you from Fishers, Michelle and Trent) asked us to attend a bonafied Obon Festival which was located down the street from our neighborhood. They had a Japanese drummer up on a platform and dancers with Japanese music playing down below. Then, surrounding the "dance floor" there were all sorts of little booths with games and food. The kids enjoyed playing all of the little games. Tanner's favorite was the toss the ball into the hole and get a prize. But I loved the game where you had to take a net with Japanese rice paper on it and catch goldfish before the paper disintegrated. Bryce decided to play so I thought...awesome, we are FINALLY getting a pet. HE thought he could enjoy the challenge and flush the fish when we got home. Needless to say, we were both assuming wrong! We ended up compromising AFTER he caught two fish. Instead of flushing them, there is now some little Japanese girl enjoying two fish as HER pets. Oh well....I will get him to break someday! There was an older Japanese gentleman that just fell in love with our three kiddos and the Bingham's two girls. I don't know if he had never seen so many American's in one place or what...but this gentleman paid for Tanner to play the ball game again....then bought all five kids ice cream....then wanted to buy all the adults a beer (which thankfully since Trent speaks fluent Japanese he was able to explain that we don't drink alcohol), then bought a snow cone and presented it to me later that evening. He was such a nice man and we were truly touched by his generosity. I do have to say that the ice cream was just about the nastiest thing I had ever tasted and the kids refused to eat it. So nicely, with a pasted grin on my face, I told them to just say thank you and carry it around for a little while and ACT like they are eating it until I could find a garbage can. When Trent asked the man why he was doing this, he simply replied he just loved to do nice things for other people because it brought him much happiness. If we only all followed his example!!