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We are having a great time exploring Japan. We get out whenever we can. Recently we traveled to Matsumoto, a city that is suppose to be only about three hours from Fussa (the city right outside Tokyo where we actually live.) It was our first real road trip from base, so we took the (very) scenic route (intentionally of course) and arrived almost seven hours after leaving. Matsumoto is famous for it's castle which was built a very long time ago. (I'll try to find out exactly how old it is and update this page.) Any ways it is was very cool to walk around inside. Here is a photograph of the outside:

We arrived on a Japanese holiday, so there were many women in kimono:

Serving special tea ceremonies.

We also visited a school house that was more than one hundred years old. The inside was very neat. They had displays of old text books and school photos. It was very similar to old school houses in the United States.
We also went to a festival in a near by town called Kawagoe. They had lots of parades with cute kids dressed up in colorful kimono and costumes:




They also had many people pulling large decorative floats many of which were more than 100 years old. They had performers on them acting and playing music:


Notice the guys on the very top (with their heads cut off in the picture.) It was their job to lift the power lines (with their hands) as they went under them.

There were lots of booths where you could buy delicious snacks including fishsticks:

It was a very popular festival. Lots of people attended:

Well that's all for now. We'll put some more pictures up latter.

Brian and Kristen Marriott

Links to other photos from my Japan photo's index page here

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