Toukasan Festival

Yet another summer festival. This one is in the middle of town and is connected to one of the old temples. We stopped by the temple briefly, ran into one of Kellan's teachers, Masakane Sensei. You can see her in the yukata (summer kimono) and see how shy Kellan suddenly became when she came over to us. I guess he was just surprised to see his teacher outside of the school setting. We then decided to forgo the festival food for some nice sandwiches from Andersen's. It was nearly 7:00 when we got there and after buying the food, we noticed a man making really intricate balloon animals, swords, etc. for free. We stood in line with the boys for about 10 minutes and when some other people came up to get in line too, the man told them he was finished. He hadn't said anything to us and we'd been waiting awhile so we were stuck wondering if the boy in front of us who'd just requested a sword AND a gun was actually the last customer. It took the man another 10 minutes to make the sword and gun.....he was a professional and used different colored balloons, different balloon shapes and sizes, and even different sized pumps. I knew that Jolon had his heart set on a sword (or more likely a gun, but he probably knew we wouldn't let him get a gun) and we were all going to be so disappointed if the man told us that he was finished for the evening. But what he did after the little boy walked away was just that. He said he was sorry but that he was all done....and then he took off his amazing balloon hat and told Jolon that he could have it. As you can see from the pictures, it was an amazing hat, but I was still a little worried that Jolon would be sorry about not getting his sword. He wasn't. He LOVED the hat and had a ball wearing it around the crowded streets and all the way home.