Summertime means festival season in Okinawa. We love it! Eisa dancers, interesting food, live music, and in this case....beer. I swear the band was playing the japanese version of an Eagles' song, but that may have been wishful thinking. They did, however, have BBQ (authentic I believe solely because the man in charge of the cooking looked southern).
Au Bon is one of the biggest festivals they have here and it's about the celebration of the ancestors gone before. It's a weeklong celebration and you know it's Au Bon time because you see Eisa Dancers everywhere. Last night after dinner we heard the music and went down the street to the Nagahama community center. All the kids were out in their costumes and ready to dance. The locals were so kind to offer Bennett and Beau each drums and the boys joined in.
We've been up and out the door every morning by 7:15 to make it to our 8:00 am swim lesson. From swim, the boys were off to school and then we often hit the pool again after for fun. It was worth every early morning. The boys had a blast. The swim staff was amazing! And the boys are like fish. So grateful for the wonderful young people that came over from the states to teach swimming. The names "Ms. Chloe" and "Ms. Karissa" come up frequently in the boys' conversations. From the pictures, I think you'll see why.
It's been a busy summer and I'm behind on posting. A few weeks ago I took the boys to Ryukyu Mura to watch the Eisa Dancers. It was after a long day of swimming, so we were pretty tired, but never too tired to watch some Okinawaiian festivities.
Summertime means festival season in Okinawa. We love it! Eisa dancers, interesting food, live music, and in this case....beer. I swear the band was playing the japanese version of an Eagles' song, but that may have been wishful thinking. They did, however, have BBQ (authentic I believe solely because the man in charge of the cooking looked southern).
We've been up and out the door every morning by 7:15 to make it to our 8:00 am swim lesson. From swim, the boys were off to school and then we often hit the pool again after for fun. It was worth every early morning. The boys had a blast. The swim staff was amazing! And the boys are like fish. So grateful for the wonderful young people that came over from the states to teach swimming. The names "Ms. Chloe" and "Ms. Karissa" come up frequently in the boys' conversations. From the pictures, I think you'll see why. 
It's been a busy summer and I'm behind on posting. A few weeks ago I took the boys to Ryukyu Mura to watch the Eisa Dancers. It was after a long day of swimming, so we were pretty tired, but never too tired to watch some Okinawaiian festivities. 
