Bentenjima Hanabi

This weekend, Dustin and Theo biked the Shimanami Kaido. This was the first time that Theo has been on this cycling route and the fifth or sixth time for Dustin. I will try to convince Dustin to write a post about their adventures in the next week. The two younger kids and I decided to stay home, firstly because I was working in the morning and early afternoon, and secondly because that evening was the annual Bentenjima fireworks festival. Our friends, the Oshimas, watched Rosie and William while I was at work and as soon as I returned home, I threw on some yukata and headed out the door.

The fireworks are held each year in Tomonoura and as always, it was incredibly lively and crowded. William was exited enough to add a new word to his repertoire: hanabi, or fireworks. We arrived early enough to get a parking spot, wander around the street stalls, and find a good spot to view the fireworks.

William demanded a photo in front of this firetruck 

Overpriced, unhealthy, but oh, so delicious!

This was my first time to see a chocolate and sprinkle covered banana stand

I thought these Anpanman candy covered apples were great. The lady in the background was busy
making a Hello Kitty candy apple. 

Happy as Larry he was

and totally oblivious to the samurai father and son sneaking up on him

There are a lot of different stalls that allow children to "fish" for toys. At this stall, you pay to get one metal hook attached to a short piece of twisted tissue paper. The object is to hook as many of these balloons without getting the piece of paper wet and losing your hook. Once the paper breaks, you must stop fishing, but until then you can keep whatever you hook. William got one balloon before he got impatient and ripped his hook off the paper for no reason. Maybe he is a bit too young for this game? 

A similar game involves a little plastic hoop with rice paper stretched in between and a collecting bowl. You then try and scoop as many balls, toys, or whatever out of the water and into your bowl before your paper net breaks. There is an art to it: you need to work fast because the paper breaks down quickly once it is wet, but you can't get too greedy and scoop too much. Whatever you collect in your bowl before your net breaks you can keep. 

This stand lets you scoop up goldfish with a paper net which I think is pretty sad.

I thought this mom and her tiny little girl in yukata were so incredibly cute.

William, Rosie, and me

All thoughts of fireworks were temporarily forgotten when William found a new little friend on the sidewalk. It was a funamushi, or sea slater, which was very friendly and docile. It is an oniscid isopod, very closely related to pill bugs, which are actually crustaceans and not insects like most people think. One of William's favourite pastimes is playing with pill bugs in our yard so it was not at all surprising that he found the sea slater so appealing. He discovered the "fun" in "funamushi" by letting it scamper all over his hands and arms, carrying it around, and creeping out anyone who came close enough to see.

I think someone drew on its back because they don't naturally have white markings

Rosie occupied herself by picking up rocks and trying to eat them, one of her all time favourite hobbies.

 And puttering around the street stalls taking in all the new sights.

This was her first real fireworks show and I was curious to see how she would react to all the noise and lights. Thankfully, she shrieked in joy and clapped her hands as each firework boomed in the sky. The boys were always pretty mellow about fireworks when they were babies, so her overboard enthusiasm surprised me.

Looks like we'll have to go to more fireworks shows this summer! 

Bentenjima Fireworks

On the last Saturday in May there was a fireworks festival in Tomonoura. Dustin, the kids, and I decided to go and enjoy the festival decked out in yukata and jimbei. The fireworks were exceptional and Theo informed me half way through: "Fireworks are my favorite, but it's just because I love fire so much." It seems we have a budding pyromaniac on our hands. 

There were a few groups that performed dances before the fireworks started and a ton of street stalls selling all sorts of tasty things. 

We arrived about an hour and a half early, but soon realized that we should have arrived much earlier than that if we expected to get a place to sit. We finally found a spot to sit on the road that had a good view and didn't seem to be in anyone's way. At least we know for next year to arrive super early and have someone scout out some sitting spots right away. Oh, and some folding chairs, or even a tarp would have been nice. 

Regardless of where we were sitting, the boys were pleased as punch about seeing the first fireworks of the season. 

The sun finally went down and the fireworks began to rocket into the sky.

William enjoyed the first 30 minutes or so, but as he got sleepy and kept on being jarred awake by the sound of exploding fireworks, he became progressively crankier.

Theo kept up a running commentary during the whole display, saying things like: "look at all that fire!", "It's so sparkly!", and "look at the giant fire flowers!". He might have been annoying to those around us if they could have only understood his incessant chattering.

 Seeing as we will be missing a few fireworks festivals while we are visiting Canada in July and August, I am really glad that we were able to make it out to Tomonoura and see these.

Untimely Endings

Over the holidays, two important electronic devices in my life met with an untimely end. Right before Christmas, our camera effectively stopped working. Since I take photos on a daily basis, as a hobby but also for this blog, I found it extremely annoying and inconvenient. We resorted to taking photos with our cell phones which was a shame since I would have liked to get good pictures of Christmas, New Year's, and Dustin and Theo's birthday. Dustin and I had been planning on getting a new camera in the spring, but the sudden malfunction of our old camera made us reconsider our timing. After sifting through our options and doing a bit of research, we finally settled on a camera that suits our needs. It arrived last week and I am extremely pleased with the shots it takes. Now the only excuse for crappy pictures on the blog is my own picture taking ability! Here are a couple of pictures we took from a bike ride on Monday:

View from Tomonoura harbour

Daffodils in January!?

Reporting for duty!

At a riverside park

Tomonoura

The other device that came to a sudden demise was my Kindle. I was reading a book and was obviously pretty engrossed in it when Theo lunged at me, landing with both of his knees on the screen. I heard a loud snap like a twig breaking and about 3 seconds later, the screen looked like this: 

At that moment, I actually found myself stating something my mother said many times during my childhood: "I can't have nice things". Theo was really remorseful and quite empathetic because he offered to take me to a playground and buy me ice cream to make me feel better. I almost took him up on the offer. Fortunately, only the screen is broken, not all of the other electronic bits, and Dustin, being the capable person that he is, ordered a used screen and claims that he can make it as good as new. Meanwhile, after wingeing for a few days about having to stop reading my book at a really gripping part, we decided to get a second Kindle. We had been intending on getting one for Dustin at some point, but since mine is out of commission for the time being, it seemed like the right time. We got a different (cheaper) model than the last one and it is pretty nice. I was able to finally finish my book and have been fueling my daily need for reading ever since. Hopefully we won't have any more mishaps in the next few months. Replacing two electronic devices in a few weeks is about as much as we can handle!

Our two e-book readers side by side

Tomonoura

The 19th of September was Respect for the Elderly Day and as this was a national holiday in Japan, Dustin had the day off. We decided to head south to Tomonoura, the port district of Fukuyama. It was about a 15 minute bus ride from downtown, and about as touristy as I have seen Fukuyama get, which is really not that touristy at all. There were no big crowds, only a few little souvenir shops, and only one street food vendor.

The district is pretty small with narrow, winding, stone paved streets and beautiful old Edo period buildings. 

There were old storehouses from the 1800's that you could wander around in, and quite a few little shops selling yomeishu, a sweet herbal liqueur which is supposed to promote a long life. 

Hayao Miyazaki rented a house here in 2005 and based the town in Ponyo off of Tomonoura. Every souvenir shop had a few cute Ponyo themed items for sale which took a lot of self restraint not to buy. 

We went to a quaint udon shop for lunch. The man who owned it told us that Miyazaki had used the goldfish in his courtyard for his original sketches of Ponyo. Theo loved his onigiri. 

William charmed his way into the owner's heart and by the end of our meal he asked us if he could take a picture for his "wall of good customers".  Here was the outcome:

The old stone lighthouse was made to resemble the lanterns used at temples.

Tomonoura is on the Seto Inland Sea with lush little tree covered islands scattered here and there. 

From the harbor you can see tiny Benten Island with its pagoda and torii gate. 

Directly behind Benten Island is Sensuijima, a much larger island, with a little hotel, hot springs, and campground. There is a ferry that takes you from Tomonoura to Sensujima which is made to look like an old sailing ship. Theo was so happy about riding on the "pirate ship".

There was a really nice beach near the campground and Theo was ecstatic to take a dip in the ocean. The water in this area is extremely calm and there were hardly any waves. It was a warmish, over cast day and the water was really pleasant, so Theo spent almost 2 hours enjoying himself in the water. 

Hopefully we can find a free weekend sometime soon to come back and camp. It looked like there were a few trails to wander and beaches to discover on the island and best of all, very few tourists!