Yosakoi

I am willing to bet that none of my American friends have ever heard of Yosakoi. I don't think I am even capable of explaining it, so I will direct you to the wikipedia explanation: Yosakoi wikipedia

Hard to explain in english, isn't it?

Ok. There was a HUGE yosakoi festival in Omotesando last week, and we decided to go. The festival was set up in Yoyogi koen, the large park that we live near. It's 2 subway stops away, about a half hour walk or a 10-15 minute bike ride. We took the subway from Yoyogi-uehara to Meiji-jingumae and there we were, right in the middle of the festival.

We took some time to watch the yosakoi groups at the stage right near the Meiji-jingumae subway station. Nick and I planned to get all the boys some lunch at the park - Japanese street food is the best junk food you will ever eat. After some yakisoba and yakitori, we walked down to the next stage and watched some more groups perform.

This was so much fun. The dancing is fun, and the groups vary so much- there are college groups, neighborhood groups with older ladies and toddlers, and work groups like the TokyoMetro group that was the last group we saw perform. After their energetic, entertaining dance, it started to rain, so the Johnsons decided to head back to the subway and go home.

The group we had just seen perform was also headed home - and there they were, en masse in the subway - the Tokyo Metro Yosakoi dance group. They were very gracious and

friendly and let us take some photos with Michael and Sam. Then we said

sayonara - and they took the train one direction, while we headed back to Yoyogi-uehara.

St. Patick's Day in Tokyo

I don't know about you, but I didn't expect St. Patrick's Day to be observed or even mentioned in Japan. Imagine my surprise when I read on the Shibuya City website that there would be a St. Patrick's Day parade on Omotesando-dori on March 15th. I couldn't imagine what that would be like, and I really wanted to go. 

We planned to go as a family, but Michael was sick that weekend. Chris had finally recovered from being sick - I think it was his first trip out of the apartment since falling ill on the 9th. Chris and I went down to Omotesando with Denise, Andrew, and Daniel Hersey to check out the parade. 

It was not a huge parade, but it was a fun parade. St. Patrick himself started the parade, followed by the US Army Japan marching band. There were Irish dancers, Irish dogs - setters and wolfhounds, and graduates of an Irish University. In other words, anything remotely Irish was in this parade. 

Every Irish pub in Tokyo marched in the parade with signs and coupons - I have a feeling that they are the primary impetus for this parade! One of the pubs had a super jazzy combo that

 marched in the parade.

Sam's Birthday

We took the boys to the National Children's Castle for Sam's 5th birthday. It is an entertainment complex in Omotesando with a play area, arts room, music room - all with drop-in activities. The art room has a 20 foot wall that kids can paint on! There was an art activity set up for girls day that I really wanted to do, but - no girls in our party except for me, and I was too shy to stand in line (with no kids) to get the kit to make the origami dolls. 

There are computers with games (some in English, thank goodness), computers to explore music, and foosball and pool for older kids. There's a gym, a pool, and an outdoor roof garden with tricycles to ride on. It is definitely geared toward younger children - Chris was quickly tired of the set-up, but a very good day out for the younger boys!

On the way to the Children's Castle, we spotted an amazing bakery with the most beautiful fruit tarts I have ever seen. There were gorgeous confections of mango, green melon, all sorts of berries. There was a tart with soba noodles and strawberries sprinkled with white sugar - and one with whole pears, peeled, sliced and fanned with the stems still attached. Another with mochi rice cakes in pink and white studded around the edge. Well, Nick's birthday was in 4 days, I was absolutely cupcaked out after Sam's birthday, so we stopped and ordered a mixed berry bavarian creme 15 cm tart for Nick's birthday. If you send me an email, I will tell you the price! I am too embarrassed to post it publicly. But I will post a photo of the most beautiful, tasty tart - Mixed berry with bavarian creme and chocolate straws... yummmm.