Ginza Willow Fest

On May 5th, some of my friends in the Hot Mama's Group and our babies traveled into Tokyo by train to go to the Ginza Willow Festival. I've said before how the Japanese call everything "festivals". This was basically a parade going down a main street, but it was fun to watch. They had all sorts of things- floats, bands, cheerleaders, people in costume..all the typical parade stuff. The funniest part was actually the crowd watching the parade. Literally there were swarms of people watching and they would watch until part of the parade passed, and then run down the street to get ahead of the parade, so they could watch it again. These Japanese- they are some funny folks! It was hot and we got hungry part way through, so we went and had a picnic lunch in a nearby park/shady area and listened to one of the bands (who had finished the parade by then) perform. Then we all piled back on the train to head home. We were hot and sweaty, but it was a fun day out, and our first official Japanese parade!

Mallory getting ready for the parade

This was my view, if I held my camera up high. (So I'm not sure how much of the actual parade Mallory saw, but she didn't complain).

Japanese mounted police

I think these were Japanese Boy Scouts

Some random cartoon characters

That's the back of Hello Kitty's head. She's the star of the show here in Japan, so I'm sure no parade could be complete without her! See the ad for her in the shop window above her head?

Japanese "umbrella people"

Alon and Mallory taking in the parade and some sun

Some Japanese University band

cheerleaders and twirlers

Scottish Japanese- hahaha

cute young Japanese cheerleaders

a very cool balloon flower

Mallory loving the parade

and then passing out from all the fun

collages of the kids and the fun

group shots