A Bridie Day

 Today's bento is extremely simple, but still cute and fun.  There are a few things missing in the color department due to the fact that I never made it to the grocery store this weekend.  However, we went to JapanFest instead - so much better than the store!  In the background is the lovely bento loot that I bought:  The green crab furoshiki, the pink flower furoshiki and those elegant flower picks!

In the bento: A bunch of Mac n cheese, a bunch of grapes, some steamed broccoli, 3 vegetarian Forfar Bridies (the shy one is hiding behind the smiling ones).  Because of my allergy to bananas I'm afraid that bananas in our house tend to be rather boring.  This one is outside the box :)

JapanFest was a wonderful experience that we can't wait to repeat next year.  We arrived at 10 am to watch the Sumo wrestling which A-chan still claims was her favorite part of the day.  The traditional Japanese dancing was a pleasure to watch and also gave me a few pointers to work on in my own dance.

A-chan concentrating at the Children's Calligraphy Workshop

 I was impressed with the detail and preparation that went into the Children's Calligraphy Workshop.  The kids learned not only the way to draw the modern Kanji for 'friends' but also the history of the kanji.

A-chan and Ichigo 

 We couldn't resist taking a picture in front of the huge lucky kitty!  The pink osanpo, instantly named 'Ichigo' was A-chan's happiest purchase of the day and continues to be well-loved even at home.

Our lunch: Udon noodles, dango and dorayaki

 Finding Vegetarian food for lunch was a bit of a challenge.  I had planned to make bentos but my rice cooker chose that morning to die leaving me devastated and bento-less.  We enjoyed our noodles and desserts very much, though!  Another aspect that we thoroughly enjoyed were the festival games.  A-chan and I both went Yo-yo balloon fishing and she was rather delighted that she was very good at it while I...frankly stunk at it.  She also got a huge kick out of the fact that even though she lost the ring toss game they still gave her some cotton candy.  As we watched the anime 'KamiChu' last night, A-chan exclaimed with great pleasure over the scene where kids were given cotton candy at a temple festival.

Playing ring toss 

We also learned about flower arranging, listened to a rock concert, watched a kendo match, enjoyed the large scale calligraphy demonstration, learned about the history of mecha anime and fell in love with the koi at the koi show.  It was so much fun that we didn't leave until it ended at 6!