Lost in a February song

While our big February adventure was to Sapporo, we still made sure to have several small adventures throughout the month as well.

Went to a local temple for Setsubun and enjoyed watching some traditional dancing

Setsubun is a February holiday before lunar spring and involves lots of throwing of beans

My haul from the Setsubun throwing

It's good luck to let the shishi bite  your child's head!

Batting cages for a friend's wetting down - instead just of a machine, they project a pitcher throwing at you!

Found my new home in Yokohama's Chinatwon

Panda cafe!

It was all just too cute!

There is an early blossoming variety of cherry blossoms (kawazu) - we took advantage of President's Day to view them!

So much good food!

Love train around Valentine's Day!

I joined a friendship tour of Japanese and American people to a local art museum to see the work of local artists, especially Koya Nakamura's yuzen dyeing. I couldn't take any photos of the artwork, but it was amazing!

We also crafted these card wallets together!

And did origami!

Yokosuka naval base was first owned by the Japanese, who dug out many caves by hand for use during World War II. Blake and I each got to tour them on separate occasions.

For fish stock! Slowly building up my cooking skills of the local cuisine.

8 layers of ice cream! So good! From top to bottom - strawberry, soda pop/lemonade, coffee, vanilla, chocolate, sweet potato, sesame, and matcha (green tea)

Malcolm's BFF Virginia comes and hangs out with us sometimes, and sometimes he hangs out at her house.

Mochi pounding!

Basically, every day around here is an adventure!