Yabusame Festival

It's FINALLY cherry blossom season here in Japan! Those little pink blossoms were a welcome sight after nearly six months of heavy snow and freezing temperatures. The girls in the squadron decided to celebrate by driving to the near-by town of Towada for the Yabusame festival. Simply driving around on this extraordinarily clear day and sitting under the warm sunshine would have been enough for all of us. But this particular festival was incredible because it features female archers shooting at targets while charging down a lane on horseback. This event made for great pictures, which alway makes me happy. We also found a lot of delicious food and enjoyed watching the little ones make friends and romp around with the Japanese children there. Over all - it was pretty much the perfect day. The only thing that would have made it better was if our husbands could have joined us.

It was SO clear. It is rare to see the mountains like this.

Following our giant entourage of Americans entering the festival.

My new friend Kristina in front of one of the many colorful food booths.

Enjoying lunch in the sunshine.

Finally - a healthy festival food option. SO delicious!

Lacey enjoying her first chocobanana.

I love these ladies!

Horse archery - SO cool.

Very exciting - our first cherry blossom sighting of the year.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, James and I are much more motivated to get out and experience Japan TOGETHER during our last year here. He was very bummed that work did not allow him to accompany us to the festival on Saturday. I guess people shooting things on horseback holds a bit more appeal than many of our other festivals we ladies attend (mostly centered around flowers.) SO - we went back the next day and enjoyed taking in the sights, strolling through downtown Towada under the newly opened blossoms, and making memories.

Streets lined with cherry blossoms.

Beautiful cherry blossoms.

A kind Japanese man offered to take our picture.

I love Japan!!!