Fussa Tanabata Festival

A few weeks ago the city outside our base had a big summer festival. The sisters in the Japanese ward (who meet in the same church building as us) offered to dress the sisters in our branch in traditional summer kimonos (Yukatas) so we could attend the festival in traditional Japanese attire. It was a blast. The Japanese sisters were all so cute and friendly. Even though only 1 of the 18 sisters spoke English, we had a great time. We all fell in love with those sweet sisters that served us that day. It was such a special experience for all of us.

The Japanese sisters dressing us in the Yukatas.

My Yukata. Aunt Tiana...the dragonflies reminded me of you :)

One of the sweet Japanese sisters teaching us about some of their traditions. She's the one who put this whole thing together.

This was my favorite part of the morning. The Sensei on the left was teaching us how to go to the bathroom while wearing a kimono. It was really cute and funny.

The Japanese and American sisters.

Our family at the Tanabata Festival in Fussa city.

We ate everything we could...and it all came on a stick.

A banana dipped in pink chocolate and covered in sprinkles. Tia was loving it!

The kids played this fun Japanese game. They were given a little plastic scooper with paper lining the middle of it and were allowed to scoop as many balls as they could into a bucket until the paper broke. Jayden went straight for the big ball and the paper broke just as he and Shane scooped it in the bucket. Tia was able to pick up 1 scoop of little balls before hers broke (the workers were kind enough to give Tia a few extra balls for trying). It was fun!

I don't have a clue what this thing was, but it was so friendly we all wanted a picture with it. It looks like a green banana to me :).

(Norma, Becky, & I)

Here are some of my good friends from the branch.

Thanks Becky for letting me borrow this picture from your blog :)