Nagasaki Lantern Festival
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| Nagasaki Lantern Festival |
Not only was my week full (and fun), but my weekend was not too bad either. I saw “The Last 3 Days” at the base movie theater (with CYP staff and only like 10 other people) for three dollars Friday night. On Saturday I attended the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which had started earlier in the week on the Chinese New Year. The festival took place in the old Chinatown area of the Nagasaki, and we visited the temples that were at each of the four corners of the old Chinese reservation (our tour guide compared these reservations to the Native American reservations in the U.S.). It is now the year of the Bunny, so we saw a Bunny lantern that was over 20 feet tall, in addition to lanterns for each zodiac sign.
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| The Emperor's Parade |
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| The Emperor and Empress (who is Miss Nagasaki) |
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| Year of the Bunny Lantern in daylight |
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| Some Pig Shrine |
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| With some local ladies |
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| Lighting candles at one of the Chinese shrines |
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| An adorable baby on the tour |
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| Beautiful Lanterns! |
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| Street Food - YUM! |
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| There were a lot of GIANT lanterns |
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| More Lanterns |
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| Year of the Tiger |
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| Crossing the River |
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| Year of the Bull |
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| I was born in the year of the dragon! |
I also attended a dragon dance (which was AMAZING) and while sitting up close on my own away from my tour group I bonded with a Japanese man who also has a love of cameras. We shared with each other some of our favorite pictures of the day, and compared ISO settings, all with very little words. One of my favorite moments of the trip thus far…and a true demonstration of just how kind the Japanese Nationals are to the Americans.
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| Dragon Dance |
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| It's a lot of work! |
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| The Girls! |
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| Both teams of dragons |
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| So much detail! |
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| My Friend! |
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| Lanterns! |
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| The Bunny Lantern at night! |
Sunday was my first day to really be lazy, so I spent it cleaning the apartment and catching up with my friends who happened to be online. Sometimes I really hate the 15 hour time difference. All in all it was a great weekend, and I am ready for week three, which will be spent mostly in the CDC.
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