OK, so I guess if there's no NaBloPoMo pushing me, I'm pretty useless on the posting thing, eh? I've had these pictures hanging around my computer (yes, even downloaded from the SD card!) since last weekend, but somehow getting a post done in here kept filtering further down the "to do" list!
Last Friday, I tagged along with The Girls and Daughter #1's BFF up to the Midwest Buddhist Temple's "Ginza Holiday" fest (their 57th ... quite a tradition up in Old Town!). #1 and her BFF spend a good deal of time up there doing Japanese cultural dancing ... in fact, #1 had her picture (admittedly half cropped out and only about 1/8th to 1/4th inch big) five times in the program booklet!Needless to say, they aren't doing the stuff like the main dance group up there (as pictured at right), but they have quite a program in this stuff, and it's free (as far as I know), and if they enjoy it, hey, great.
The fest runs Friday evening and all weekend. As you can see from the pic at the left, there are some good eats available. Food at these things is never cheap, but I didn't feel we were getting reamed ... but, then again, I only got cheap stuff (a roast ear of corn was only $2, as were drinks and snow cones, and a generous pack of Edamame was only $3). They also had sushi and some vegetable entree things. A half Teriyaki Chicken with rice was only $10, and (the Girls ended up with a couple of these) was very tasty. They go through a massive amount of chicken over the weekend ... the guys by the grill said that on Saturday they'd have 12 linear feet of grills going, all packed like those in this shot!
Aside from the dancing, they had a program that involved martial arts demos, singing, and drumming ... all pretty interesting (but of which I didn't get any decent shots). They also had quite a bit of shopping, both inside in the Temple's community room and outside. The prices varied widely ... there were little 5x7" trays priced at ninety bucks, and there were cute things like these hand-carved chopsticks (love the fork-and-spoon motif!) with a nice basket holder, for just a buck.Needless to say, the chopsticks came home with me and the pricey stuff ... well, that's going to have to wait till I get a paycheck sometime in the future. I almost "pulled the trigger" on a nice set of tea cups (that were going 4 for $5), but I was one person too far back in line at that table, and some kid got them before I could. I also considered picking up a couple of books, but I'm so backed up on my reading at this point (and writing reviews ... I have four books waiting for me to chunk out the time for reviewing them) that it seemed a bit of over-kill.
Anyway, there you go. A post. Oh, happy day. Maybe more later, but (obviously) I wouldn't recommend holding your breath in anticipation!