Chinese New Year

We haven't posted in a long time.....mainly because our lives have been pretty mundane. Work, school, PTA, Daddy's business trips, rinse and repeat. However, last night, we headed to the Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown in downtown Sannomiya. We headed by train around 5pm and made it there to grab a quick bite to eat and settle in to watch the evening's festivities. We were able to see the Chinese acrobats, walk through Chinatown among the hundreds upon hundreds of people and then we were able to see the Chinese dragon. They had a small stage set up with Japanese police officers wearing a rope chain surrounding a crowd

watching the entertainment. Then, you hadto get in and out of their human gate to watch the performers. It was humorous. Of course, the acrobats, we were at the back of the group but we opted not to leave our spots and were actually able to get right up to the rope fence surrounding the stage. While we were waiting for the Dragon Dance, Tanner decided to pass the time picking up the sequins left on the ground from all of the performances. The Japanese people got a kick out of him. Each time he would reach out a little further, and then a little further. Pretty soon, I look down and he is laying on the ground to reach the sequins that were out of his reach. He ended up with a handful of sequins.

We were still very excited about getting such great spots to watch the Dragon Dance, little did we know that for the Dragon Dance, the musicians were going to set up RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. So, we ended up deaf for the evening but close to the action, nonetheless. It was pretty fun

and the highlight of the evening!

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I think I downloaded the video of a few moments from the Dragon Dance.

WOW! I think I am impressed with myself. I think I actually just downloaded a video! Woo-hooo! Love our new I-Mac!