Christmas is just around the corner. The decorations are out in the stores and they are playing Christmas carols. During this holiday season, we especially think about our friends and family in the States, remembering all the fun holidays we've shared, and missing you. So, it seems like a good time to connect through a journal. If I recall, I did the same thing last Thanksgiving.

Last year at this dinner, I sorely missed green bean casserole, a Thanksgiving staple.You can't find the ingredients here in Japan, so this year I brought canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and fried onion rings back from Minnesota in my suitcase. I'm happy to say the dish was a hit (especially with me). It didn't last very long. With my green bean casserole, it felt more like Thanksgiving.

Since it's been a long time since I've written, there is a lot to catch up on. I'll apologize in advance for making this so long. I'm sure you'll read what you can as you can and leave the rest as you need to. Hopefully the pictures interspersed with the writing will break it up so it doesn't seem quite so long.

Because we went home in the summer, we missed most of the big summer festivals. The biggest festival is Akita 's "Kanto" where they balance huge poles of lanterns on their shoulders, neck, forehead, and palm. We were able to see some of the rehearsals.

I bet it is an exciting sight when it is in full swing with lanterns lit at night.Hiromi sent us this picture of Kanto.

Although we missed the big Kanto festival, we did manage to run into a couple of smaller ones here and there. One such festival was in a small town south of Akita--Iwaki . We went there with the class that Larry substitute teaches for.

As part of the festival, there were traditional Japanese drummers performing at a stone terrace overlooking the Sea of Japan.

Another festival was in a small section of Akita . We went there with Tomiko. Many festivals revolve around "floats" that are pulled through the streets. At first they were pulled by small children. Then, men pulled it very fast and wild.

They say that the goal is to show the gods an exciting, fun time so that they will repay the people with a good rice harvest. I was invited onto one of the floats by the Shinto priests to try out the drum.

We also caught a day of street dance competition.Group after group - young and old - performed traditional or modern dances.

At the end of the competition, they all joined together to perform what must be dances that all Japanese learn in school. I suppose it's something like the "hokey pokey" in the US. Surprisingly, they were all in synch - except for one western language teacher who had joined his school's dance team. He didn't know the steps since he wasn't Japanese.