journal features
movie reviews
photo of the day

o-matsuri

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.09.27

Today we went to a neighbourhood festival. It was put on by the local shopping street, and included a ¥1000 ($10) boat tour! Kenny was a bit thrown (no pun intended) by the rocking of the boat's deck, but I made a game of it by saying, "whoooaaaa" every time the boat rocked, and he soon came to laugh at the effect.

After the boat trip, Kenny got to ride on a minature train! It had an electric shinkansen engine at one end and a working steam engine at the other, and he simply loved it. And of course bawled when it was over. I think I got some good pics, we'll see.

Following the train ride we did the length of the festival, sampling the wares and greeting such friends as we encountered. It was a fine day, with as good weather as we could have hoped to have.

Kenny seemed to get along great with Yu-kun and Mare-chan, two of the older kids from his daycare. Mare-chan is another hybrid kid, with a Japanese mum and a father whose family is from Guinea and Sierra-Leone.

rand()m quote

It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

—Anne Frank