This weekend we opted for something not so much Japanese, but altogether international. To be specific, it was the Saga International Balloon Festival. Every year balloonists from all around the world come to this flat yet beautiful area of Kyushu to show off their colors and to compete in various balloon races.
As is often the case, we got together with JD and Cara to check out the festivities. It was actually our first little road trip the four have us have taken together. It was a good one to start out with. We got a lot of pretty nice pictures of the balloons in flight.
When we first arrived, we were all four discussing whether or not a balloon could be steered and if it could choose where to land. I said that it couldn't and was quickly proven wrong as the balloons came in to dip down in front of us.
In addition to the many beautiful balloons floating about for us to gaze upon, there was a vast expanse of fair booths all serving up the usual fair foods...
Maybe I should be more specific when I say "the usual fair foods" and say the usual Japanese fair foods. Neither Sarah nor I would touch any of this stuff with a 10 foot chopstick, but many of the locals were wolfing it down like it was some cheese-on-a-stick or a funnel cake or something. To be fair, there were a few items that looked to be more to our liking...
Even with all that good looking food (including the food that actually does look good), we all managed to refrain from buying any. Lately, we've all been a little stingy with our money as we are saving for our upcoming trips to Australia (Sarah and I) and New Zealand (Cara and JD). It sure was tempting though...
After leaving the festival, and before grabbing some dinner and heading for home, we made a late night stop by the historic castle in Saga. The castle grounds are open all night, so JD and I decided to scale the walls ninja-style! It was much higher than it looks in the picture....you'll just have to trust me on that.
It was a great little road trip and was yet another memory made in Japan! We are glad that we've already had so many great memories and that many more will be created.
1 comment:
Albuquerque has the best balloon festival in the USA.
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