JapanJonesFamily: Ome Festival

Earlier in the week, we went to Japanese story time at the library (before the doctor diagnosed Annabelle with hand, foot and mouth). Story time was a lot of fun. The lady sang songs and read books. She would usually start in English and then switch to Japanese. The next day I took Annabelle in to the urgent care and the Care doctor, said it looked like she had hand, foot and mouth. It hasn't seemed to bother her too much this week, but we stayed inside the rest of the week so that we wouldn't spread it.

I kept forgetting my camera this week, so most of these pictures are from my phone. That is why the quality isn't that great on some. Sorry.

They were learning the Japanese alphabet.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Thursday we did venture out. Mike's assistant, Kaorie, is from a town called Ome. This past week they had a festival in which they buy items save them for a year and then burn them for good luck. We met up with her at the train station and she took us around the festival.

Gyoza: basically a pot sticker. These, however, were wrapped with chicken skin instead of a wonton wrapper. We were a little surprised.

Yakisoba noodles! This is one of our favorites.

She started with the chopsticks, but figured this was better.

I know you can't see them that well, but this was octopus dumpling balls or Takoyaki. We had been wanting to try these. Mike really liked them. I guess I am not a fan of really fishy tastes and this definitely had a fishy taste. Plus, you could feel the tentacles a bit on the way down. =) Mike said it was all in my imagination.

These were basically pancake holes. They were REALLY good!

Chocolate covered bananas. You could play Rock, Paper, Scissors for an extra free banana. Mike was a bit confused by the Japanese subtleties of the game.

Candy covered apples. I had to try one. They almost broke our teeth off. I don't know that they are dentist approved, but they were really good!

There were quite a few people at the festival, even with the cold weather. Can you spot Brooke?


Many people buy these heads, color in the eyeballs, make a wish and burn them the next year. They had all different sizes. We bought a smaller one just for fun.

The one we bought is about 6 inches tall.

Here they are burning one of the bigger heads in front of a shrine.

This was the outfit she was wearing that night. Mike put her snow pants on over her jacket.

Saturday we were getting ready to go for a jog.

You can take the girl out of Kentucky, but you can't take the Kentucky out of the girl. =) This is at one of my favorite stores. It's a kid's clothing store and most of the Americans call it "The Bunny Store."