My 4th of July Parade

Over 4th of July weekend I met the other VA rep in Japan (well mainland Japan there is a 3rd but she is in Okinawa) in Kyoto. It was a fantastic weekend and it was great to meet up with someone!! My one big thought about Kyoto was wayyyyyyyyyyyy too many Westerners. I saw more Westerners (excluding the bases) in Kyoto then I have my entire two months in Japan!!! We did a lot over the weekend and one of my favorite places in Kyoto, maybe Japan, was Nishki Market Alley. Nishki is loaded with food vendors and off the market is a covered arcade of shops, shops, and more shops. It included a used Kimono store; how cool is that!

One of my other favorite things was something we stumbled upon. We were at Yasaka Shrine, more to come on that later, and we walked into a park. Well, as we walked into the park we saw Japanese High School Cheerleaders and Baton Twirlers walk by and then head to a central location to line up for a parade. They were fantastic and totally made my day, well that and finally some sun peeping through the clouds! If I just had my camera in my hand they would start smiling and totally turn it on for me to take their pictures. I said it in earlier posts but the young Japanese kids love to interact with Westerners. So even though we weren't in the States or on base for the 4th of July we were still at a parade (this actually happened on the 4th!) Here are some pics of the parade, well the lineup:










The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts held signs before each group:






This Police Officer made me laugh as he struck his GQ pose:




Juliette and I were discussing what happened when the horeses went to the bathroom along the parade route when I saw what one of the cops had on his belt............yup those are poop bags!!!




More pictures from the parade:












For all those that don't know, I used to play the trombone so I ofcourse had to take this picture!


This little girl was in the park and she just made me laugh on how little she was and how big her ice was!