Matsuri - Japanese Festival

We went to a local matsuri with our neighbor and her daughter.
We happened to be babysitting Noa and Martha Noll.
We thought we were crazy to be going to a festival with five children,
but we tried it. Thankfully, kids did really well.
They all had many things to see and do.

It was so interesting to see all of the group songs,
dances and performance the 3-5 year olds did.
Japan is such a group oriented society
and this begins from a very young age.

Many of the girls were dressed up in little yukata (lightweight summer kimonos).
They were so cute!

These kids were beating the drums in a special pattern.
Every child had a chance to beat the drum with the teacher,
but they all beat the drum in the same pattern.


We definitely stood out at the festival.
We were the only foreigners and we had five cute little ones.
Anytime I looked up, I saw multiple eyes upon us
and several people even took pictures of the kids!

At the end the girls brought these water-balloon yo-yos home.
It was such fun to go to this festival and enter into Japanese culture.