Brief Hiatus, and the Tagata Jinja Hounen Matsuri

There’s a good chance I won’t blog again until sometime next week. This week and next week Kai is on a break from school, as he’s done with Kindergarten and 1st grade doesn’t start until April 9 (I usually blog during Eidan’s afternoon nap, but that’s harder to do when Kai sees that as his time for wrestling with me). Eidan’s been sick this past week with a cough that was keeping us all up at night, but I think he finally turned the corner today. And my mother and step-father arrive tomorrow for a 5 day visit. I have a growing backlog of cool stuff to write about, so I will do my best to start getting caught up next week.

In the meantime, if you’re not offended by pictures of “…a boisterous crowd of both Japanese and foreign visitors [witnessing] a 2.5m, approximately 300kg wooden phallus being carried on a mikoshi (portable shrine), by teams of 12 men…” then check out the Japan Visitor Blog’s post on the annual Japanese fertility festival, the Tagata Jinja Hounen Matsuri. It took place on March 15 and, to my regret, I didn’t know about it beforehand - otherwise I would have planned to go!