City Festival after 4 Years! Yay‼

Yesterday, after a gap of four years, the city festival was held, and the town was filled with a festive atmosphere!

Fionn has been participating since he was born (well, he just followed along with Emmet’s lantern back then), but since he doesn’t remember anything from when he was 0 and 2 years old, it felt like his first time attending!

So, he had so many questions like, “What’s a ‘happi’ coat? What kind of clothes is it?” and “What do you do with the lantern?” Since it hadn’t been held due to COVID-19, it’s no wonder he didn’t know. Seriously, it’s times like these when I think, “Oh, darn you, COVID!” It’s depriving children of so many different experiences and opportunities!!!

By the way, I found this picture from when Fionn was 3 months old. He already looks much older than that, though, haha.

Also, both Emmet and I have lost weight, lol.

This one is from when he was 2 years old! So adorable!!! He had so much fun at the festival back then, following Daddy all around the town.

After this festival, it wasn’t held for a long time due to COVID-19. It felt like forever!

During that time, he grew up so much and became old enough to carry the children’s lanterns with ease! And this year, we were invited to join the Ichijo-dori 1-chome team by Yuki’s classmate, Takashi, and his sons.

When we arrived, there were so many familiar faces, friends we know, graduates from the kindergarten, and even former students of Emmet!

Oh, by the way, Nicon-chan, who was dancing in front of the lanterns, was also in the same lantern team!

The drum performance was unexpectedly handled by Shih who is Yuna-chan’s classmate!!!
In the middle, he’s sandwiched between two seniors, Fukuda-kun from Fukuda Construction. Everyone seems to know someone or the other! It’s one of the good things about living in the countryside, haha.

It was our first time doing the children’s lanterns, but we all worked together to rotate it skillfully (it spins a lot at the intersections, and if you’re on the outside, it can be quite challenging), and it was so much fun!

Since I was following the children, I couldn’t take many photos of the adults, but before COVID, he was just going to the gym normally, so he used to say that carrying the lanterns was quite a heavy task and tiring.

Now, he’s practicing Karate rigorously every week, so compared to that training, carrying the lanterns was a piece of cake. It’s nice to see us getting all sweaty together during the festival and resting like this in the picture.

He got a bit bored in the middle and went to the food stalls or walked without carrying the lantern, but he managed to stay with us until the end. Great job!!

Finally, we took a commemorative photo together and went for an after-party!!
Thank you, Ichijo-dori 1-chome team, for inviting us! Please count on us again next year!

Ah, Japanese summer is all about festivals after all!