One last Japanese Festival

We have been a whirlwind of activity as we prepare to leave Japan and return to Kansas City. Yesterday 6 big bags were picked up to be transported to the Tokyo airport and now we are finishing up packing and cleaning. We leave Japan in about 36 hours! We have had a fun couple of weeks and have had some nice dinners with families, given many good bye speeches and went to a local festival last night.

Here is Jonas dressed for the festival in his yukata.



The festival consisted of floats like these being pulled down the street by a group of people. This festival lasted until 2 am! We left much earlier than that.


Jonas seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by all the people, floats and noise--it was a noisy festival. He spent a lot of the time on Jason's shoulders quietly checking out the scene. This is not his usual operating style. Normally, he is running around, checking everything out.


Jason with some students. Since we visit 8 schools between the 2 of us, we saw many students last night.


A very decorated cell phone





Jonas did get down to explore for a little while



And he was intrigued by pieces of paper flying around in this machine.





Jason and with one of his students and her boyfriend. She was one of the float pullers.



Eating dinner at the festival. I am going to miss Japanese festival food. We ate yaki soba (similar to friend noodles), yaki tori (grilled chicken on a stick), edamame and a jacket potato.







Our friends and fellow ALTs Rheanna and Mark. This is the Mark who took the fantastic sumo photos that we posted recently.