Japanese Buffet and JA Market

I thought I'd be posting more this week sine it's Spring Break for Mike but here it is 4 day into his break and I'm just now posting! We've had the sickies lately so we haven't done anything too exciting. Today's main goal was to finally go to the big JA Market.

It was noon when we headed out so we got lunch out. I've been craving the Titicaca Peruvian place but also wanted to try something new. I saw a sign for a place on Sunday but it was closed (I think it's more like an izakaya and only open at night). We decided to eat at the place next door called Lima Restaurant. The had a lunch buffet for 750 yen. We sat in the tatami section next to a tableful of sweet obaasans who we were pretty sure were speaking a lot of the Hogan language. The buffet was not big and had a lot of traditional Japanese food: white rice, jushi rice, japanese curry, tempura, bean sprout chanpuru, salad, red beans with mochi, and soba to name some. I was able to find enough to eat so I wouldn't cry (as Mike said, alluding to the few times during pregnancy when a lack of gluten free options would make me upset). It was pretty good, not my favorite but I was definitely not disappointed.

Later we went to the JA farmers market which will become a favorite of mine. We went in and didn't know where to look first! There were so many vegetables (not a large selection of fruit though) to choose from! The prices were really great too. We walked out with broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, onions, cherry tomatoes, a yellow squash, green beans, carrots, a small papaya, celery, and 2 small onigiris (I think that's all we bought) for less than 2500 yen. I think we'll be going there a lot more often now!

It was a pretty productive day :)

Nago Cherry Blossom Festival

Well, it's been a while but we finally did some sightseeing! Today after church some friends asked us if we wanted to go to the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival with them. It's something we've wanted to do since coming here but last year I was dealing with morning sickness (such a wrong name for something that lasts all day long) so we never got a chance to go. We gladly joined them.

The guys got the van loaded up (and yes it was loaded with 2 carseats, 2 strollers, and 2 sets of baby supplies) and we headed off. Well, we stopped for lunch then headed off.

Jude wondered why he was able to see mommy in front of him while in the car

We didn't actually go up the hill with the majority of the trees because it wasn't going to be easy with strollers. We headed through the typical festival booths except there was a lot more variety.

Jude bundled in his coat from Mayumi-san

We did see some Sakura on the side of the roads

We passed most of the booths to the main road where they had a sort of parade. It was a lot of Eisa groups, dancing groups, and some groups where all the people were dressed in costume (see Mike's Facebook for a video with one of the groups). 

One of the Eisa groups

We got stopped quite a bit with the crowd so we had an opportunity for a family picture :)

Shisa

Jude got tired 

Another Eisa group

He even slept through a drumming "war" between two Eisa groups. I had to cover him up with blankets because it got so cold. 

This was after I realized I brought a hat in his diaper bag...that would have been useful the first hour or two that we were there!

Dancers

We had a great time but it had gotten so cold and rainy! We decided to head back to the van and get some food at one of the booths on the way out. Jude did really well and only got fussy a few times. It was nice getting out and hanging out with friends instead of just sitting at home...I'm ready for it to start warming up so we can go out more often!