This Weekend in 2005

(FIRST...like the new look?!? My rad friend, Christine, has mad photoshop skills! Thanks, Christine!!!)

We were living in Japan and John was gone. SURPRISE! So, I marched my happy self to MWR (Morale Welfare & Recreation) and found a trip to take. Just so happened I hopped a bus to a Fertility Festival! (Ok, so it seems my pictures are a week off as the festival is held March 15, but let's go with it...)

Tori gate entrance to the festival.

Wooden plaque called 'ema.' You write wishes on them and leave them at a shrine.

Early cherry blossoms.

According to locals, you crawl through this for good fertility luck. Well, shoot. It worked...

Vulva, people. Follow me with the theme of the day here.

Touching the penis for fertility.

Large wooden penis.

More touching for good luck. Again, I'm certain it was not needed. 

Phallic reference of the nose...

Pretty sure this one speaks for itself! 

There are always parades for pomp and circumstance.

This held the new wooden penis for the year.

Japan has some spectacular street food! This was some of the less random foods available: fried rice!

Is that a banana in your pocket? 

The mochi (pounded rice) formed in to balls. It was being thrown from a roof for God knows what reason. I stood under an awning to avoid being pegged with this 1,000 pound 90 mile and hour fastball. Then I ran to pick one up to pose for a picture!! 

 The same weekend, I went rock climbing somewhere on Kanagawa prefecture. I wish I had blogged then so I could remember the name of this place. It was beautiful. I had a great work out and met some new friends. 

We were climbing the walls on either side in this gap.

It seems after all that fun, I still had energy to come home to take "MySpace" pictures for John. Check out the hair!! ...and the FIVE head!

Fall!

Our little vacation to Lynchburg, VA, for Chad and Kate's wedding made me keenly aware of the fall we'll be missing out on this year. Those first cravings for chili, sweaters and all things cozy will likely be forced here -in the name of fall! On the flight home, I was thinking of all the falls I've experienced.

My childhood falls were filled with camping, playing even harder ouside since it was not as hot (note: I did not say cooler). Pumpkins were picked in a "patch" at a church or along side the road and it was imperative that Halloween costumes were light weight because it was almost certain that it would not be cooler than 75 degrees. There was nothing spectacular about fall in Florida. No peak foliage, no scarves, and no bitter good-byes to flip flops. I never knew any different until we started travelling.

Japan was much like living in Virginia, I'd say.

A mild fall, where the leaves changed and you got cozy in your sweaters and scarves. It wasn't the fall I had dreamed of as a kid. I always imagined the epitome of fall to be a magical event that only happened in Maine. I mean, I know it's gorgeous elsewhere. But, Maine...
Our next duty station was Monterey, CA. Fall in that part of California was still on the edge of an Indian Summer. I wasn't complaining, considering the other 10 months of the year it was cold and damp. We did get to experience our first real pumpkin patch! It was neat to pick out a pumpkin that was sitting in the exact spot it grew. After Monterey, we were lucky enough to be in New England.

When fall came it just made me melt and fall in love with Rhode Island. The smells, the feeling of that crisp air and the ambiance (is that true of nature?) make you feel like a kid! I'd give anything to be there right now with the boys the ages that they are. There really is nothing like warming up to soup or cuddling up on the couch and actually needing a blanket. Did I mention that Fall means LAAAHBSTAH?