Midst Fireflies and Runway Lights

(DISCLAIMER: This is the most convenient way for me to keep all my family updated and its way easier posting pics on here than emailing them! So for those of you who don’t want details on our every experience feel free to skim or disregard…Whatever floats your boat, clogs your toilet, plugs your sink, etc..)

We got to do so many fun things in the past week! It started on Saturday when we went to a pro soccer game with some of Kiel’s work friends. Japanese are really into their soccer and they have a ton of team spirit! It was really fun to watch (and it was funny to see the other team wearing bright neon pink for their jersey color…only in Japan…). After the game we had a bbq and it was really fun!
On Sunday we went to a firefly festival dedicated to fireflies. The festivals are really big here in Japan…everyone brought their food and goods to sell along the streets leading to the mountains where the fireflies are. Everything was so colorful and lots of the girls were wearing traditional kimonos that were so gorgeous. There were Japanese lanterns strung all the way up to where the fireflies were and they looked so cool! Very Japanese-ish! The fireflies were AMAZING!! There were thousands and thousands everywhere! We walked about a mile through the mountains with fireflies completely surrounding us…it felt like we were in the middle of the stars. It was fun to watch Kiel chase them and jump around trying to catch them for Caleb to see…Caleb loved them! He kept trying to squish them with his fingers but we saved them all. Kiel had never seen them either and he thought they were super cool. It really looked like Christmas lights covering a city. They were so bright. That was a really fun experience.
On Tuesday we FINALLY got to tour inside the Mats Castle. It was so beautiful!


On Wednesday Kaichan (that’s what they call Caleb here) and I went to play with our friends, Kanako and Kochan. We went on a super long, hot walk to a really fun park. We watched helicopters take off and then we played in a little kid water park with a bunch of naked Japanese kids. It was too much fun. Then we went to Toys-R-Us and played with all there toys! They love Toys-R-Us here.


Yesterday Yukarisan took Caleb and I to an art museum where we almost got thrown out a dozen times…Once because our stroller was too squeaky, then apparently your not supposed to take pictures in this one room (like I’m supposed to know how to read signs?!?) and then Caleb kept screaming. He was such a naughty boy.
Then Kiel and I went on a date to an Italian restaurant. We wanted to save money so we ordered a $14 pizza to share and it was ridiculously tiny! I could have eaten the whole thing by myself and still been hungry! So then we ordered a $12 lasagna which was tiny too! Don’t get me wrong, they tasted soooooooooooo good! Unlike America, Japanese care more about quality than quantity so it tasted really good we just a tiny bit of it! We finally gave up on filling ourselves up there and ran across the street to a cheap market and got some more food. Ha. It was quite the fun experience.
We were asked to be models so today we are going to don kimonos and strut the runway! I’m not sure what its for and its probably just for something small but I’m excited to wear a kimono! They are so beautiful and elaborate. Hopefully I’ll get some good pics of that too. I’m sure Kiel will look smokin’ in a kimono!...a day later....here are the pics!
Thanks for emails from some of you and to the tide of you who just quit the blog-o-sphere—I’m very sad and you have to keep me updated somehow! You have to keep me updated on everything Katie M.!
Love you guys!
(PS. Caleb sprouted 2 molars! Yay!)