Gion Party

The Gion floats come by my house on Sunday morning, which is a great opportunity to watch the festival and the dancing in relative peace, with the ability to escape back into the air conditioning in between floats! Last year I invited people over to watch with me - only for Erica to get sick and have to go to hospital, so the party was cancelled. This year I got my party, and my baby was in full health, so I was very happy!

I love how tidy my rooms look before a party! Picture taken for later inspiration, let's see if I can keep it like that all summer!

I decided to have an ice cream and swimming pool party for all my friends with kids, followed by a pot luck lunch, whatever for dinner, and finally to walk over to the festival in the evening to watch the floats go into the shrine. It's much more exciting at night, and they go faster, but it's special during the day because that's when you see the dancers. We gave them quite a nicely sized audience!

Left: kids' party!Kristin and kids arrived first, then Akiko and Tomomi with
Daichan. Here, Erica is lying down next to him in order to, I don't know, commune with him all the better! She loves babies. Tommy and Lena are fussing over him too, while Amy reads to Sasha and Hiro. Right: around lunchtime, that's Kevin and his cute feet in front in his yukata, his wife next to him, Kate and Amy playing chess in the corner, then Hannah, Georgia, Cameron and Tomomi

Left: same place, same table, different people, different food! Evening drinks with Rich, Kuni and Juna, Kristin, Christine and E7, Hannah (only one who hasn't moved) and Kate and Amy, this time she's showing Kate her drawings.
On the right, your hostess! With Tammy.

KIDS! Left: Erica proving that 21st Century kids do still enjoy lo-tech toys like a View Master. When the little darlings got too noisy, I chased them upstairs to play dress-ups, which resulted in several fashion shows: Right, Nao got to be Snow White.
left, Sasha goes Indian, Singapore style. Right, Juna as Barbie Mariposa.