August Whirlwind: Week 1 ~ Kids Camp & Tanabata

The whole month of August has been a whirlwind of crazy camps and activities.  The first week of August was spent preparing for Kids Camp.  Kids Camp started early at 8:30ish.  There were so many kids!  I was really surprised at how many kids showed up.

We started out by registering, having a short Bible teaching, then we were off to the park!

There the kids had a great time sliding down a big turf slide, climbing ropes, logs, and other insane obstacle courses.  Just the hike itself was enough for the adult chaperones.  But the kids had so much energy they wanted to do the course again!

Manami and I joined the kids on the ropes very briefly for a picture.

After the park, the kids cooled off by jumping into a barrel filled with water.  They called this some kind of Japanese bath.  I don't really get it.  The kids liked it though.  We also had shave ice!  The line was so long that I felt bad for the guys having to crank to shave ice maker manually.

 

That night, Manami and I gave a testimony dressed up as hula girls.  Manami bought my grass skirt from an ABC Store in Hawaii.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), she didn't see the label marked "infant."  So the grass skirt turned out to be a grass apron.  I had to make sure no one saw my very exposed backside.  

I gave my testimony about not being afraid of the dark.  Afterwards, I still had to teach English class to my Saturday class, so I left.  While I was gone, Manami taught the kids some basic hula moves that I had taught her just an hour ago, lol.  It seemed that they had a good time.  They followed that up with fireworks.  I didn't see any of it since I was teaching my class.  Honestly, the introvert in me was somewhat glad to be in a quiet classroom with just 2 other adults.  It was a nice break.

The following morning, we had church service and all the kids lined up in front.  They sang a song about being thankful.  And that concluded our Kids Camp.

The next day was Tanabata Festival.  Of all the years I've been in Sendai, I've never really seen the Tanabata festival.  It's really famous in Japan and many people from all over come to see it.

Junko, Yoko and I dressed up in yukata and headed down town.  There was saw everyone wearing yukata and eating food from street vendors.  It was really fun. We bought lots of Japanese junk food:  yakitori, yakisoba, some kind of okonomiyaki, and edamame.  We sat in the middle of a street and watched the fireworks display up above in the sky.

Me and Junko in yukata.

It was hard to capture the fireworks with my cell phone, but thanks to filters... they came out cool.  The fireworks display lasted 1.5 hrs.  It was really something.  Definitely the best fireworks show I've seen (including in Hawaii and Disneyland).  The show ended a little early due to rain.  But we walked and walked for a long time to get to the car and we never got rained on.  Oh well..  It was still a good experience.