That's actually the pronunciation for サマーフェスティバル or "Summer Festival", held in Koriyama Baptist Church's parking lot. I wanted to post this 2009 one before we had this year's church picnic, and these photographs became archaic.pics: Cowboy Ueno w/Beverly Tajima working hard behind him on...noodles; Plateful (no squid on this plate; you'll have to take my word for it--we really did have grilled squid!)
It was decided not to use the Japanese direct translation 夏祭り ("Natsu Matsuri"), because that would connotate the buddist summer feast, which Koriyama Baptist Church wanted to stay far away from. So we used the English word, "Festival", which actually means "Matsuri"...just to differentiate it from the pagan activity.
pics: It opens if you hit it just right.... (Both of these girls are away at college this year); But there's no food left to take a picture of! (Nobby Tajima and his cowboy hat just barely made it into this photo!)
There were simple games for kids, chilled soft drinks or barley tea, yummies (including grilled squid, rice balls, fried noodles, eggplant, roasted weiners, watermelon). Oh yes, half a dozen folks were drafted to try their hand at "blind man's bluff"...no; blindfolded split-the-watermelon. One of the Tajima grandchildren, Kent, was the popular mascot of the festival, a good sport to a church member who put fingerpaint across his cheeks!
Fingerpaint? Near the end of the barbecuish afternoon, everyone participated in making a "memoir poster" of the event by stamping his hand on a large sheet of paper and signing it.
pics: Grinning Kent; Ha-yah! (The girls were just fooling around; Meg doesn't really know karate...plus it doesn't take a karate chop to break a cucumber!).
pic: MY handprint! The one that says 斎藤智子(Saito Tomoko)！ Well, it's upside down. But that really IS my name in Japanese. (It took three sheets of paper to get everyone's handprints!)
