Last week we had the opportunity to go out to an orphanage in Shichinohe and help with pulling a float in a local festival. It was a humbling, yet extremely enjoyable few hours out of our day! The day started at the orphanage, just saying hello to the children, ages 5-17, and then watching the girls take some pictures with them, and letting them take pictures of the girls. Once we got to the starting spot for the parade, we had to locate our float. As we made our way to float #3, we got stopped numerous times so people could say hello and take pictures of both girls. I always get a few laughs watching the interaction, both girls are good sports with it, and seem to eat up the celebrity-like attention they get. Once things got underway, we took turns pulling the float and playing Taiko with those on the float. There were a few stops along the parade route while we waited for all of the floats to catch up, and at every stop there was a rush to the coolers on the back of the float, and the push to get me to join in for a beer, and along the walk there were a few older families that were giving out Sake right at their homes, All that watched quickly noticed the group of 8 Americans that were participating in the effort. With a few high-fives, kids running up and saying hello as loud as they could, to the Elvis look-a-like that ran up and walked a half block just saying "so cool" over and over to me, to being a part of the Taiko battle at the end for the crowd, and pulling the float back to it's "off-season" resting place, for a private performance and thank-you speech, was yet another adventure that will not soon be forgotten. Here are a few pictures from throughout the day.
