Neighbourhood Festival

I just got back from a festival that was being held in the park beside Trev's place. Wakako made us some sweet Thai food for dinner and then we walked across the street to the festival that the neighbourhood holds every year to celebrate Obon, a huge part of the Japanese culture where they remember the people from their families who have died.
Dancing is usually a big part of Obon festivals, and this one was no exception. They had a big stage set up in the centre and people were dancing in big circles around the stage. There was a guy playing a big Japanese drum on the stage. Most of the people dancing were old women and children, most of whom were wearing yukatas.
There were also a few games for the kids, and in the top picture you can see Noah (well, Trev's doing the work), using a small net, made of thin paper so that it dissolves quickly, to try and scoop little balls into a bucket. You have to move really slowly, or the paper tears and the net becomes useless. Noah ended up with 3 balls.
Trev's place is very close to Oono elementary school where I teach at a few times a month. So as I was walking around, I would see kids all of a sudden get a surprised look on their face and gasp, "Jason-sensei". The braver ones would approach me and say hello. Unfortunately, I've only taught each class twice so far, and with the classes being around 70 students, for a total of over 400, not surprisingly I can't recognize most of them yet. So any kid that showed any sign of recognition of me, I just assumed that I teach them. The two girls in the bottom picture go to Oono and kept trying to get me to dance. However, being uninterested in making a complete fool of myself, I declined. Unfortunately, Trev had to get in the picture and pose and ruin it.