August 10th was the big summer festival here in Yachiyo and although we didn't know too many people from the area at the time, we went and checked it out.  Lots of traditional dancing and games for the kids to play.  Yuki's folks came out with Mayu and Mayu tried her luck at a few of the games.  The fireworks were really good because they went off really close to where everyone was.  

The following weekend was the big "fabric festival" in Nishiwaki (Yuki's hometown).  The reason it is called the fabric festival is because after it got too expensive in England to make fabric, Japan took over and the area of Japan that made fabric was Nishiwaki.  Now Japan is in the predicament that England was in 40 years ago.  It is too expensive to make fabric here so 

a lot of factories are shutting down cuz they can't compete with the factories in China, Myannmar and Vietnam.  But there are still some pretty big factories here for the moment and because making fabric was the lifeline of Nishiwaki (that and fishing hooks but a fishing hook festival doesn't have a very nice ring to it), the festival is thereby called the fabric festival.

You are probably wondering what is up with the belly dancers.  Well, Nishiwaki is the dead center of Japan and has thereby earned the nickname "the bellybutton of Japan".  The city is quite proud of this fact and Nishiwaki is host to an anual "Navel Marathon", the "Navel Shopping Center" (went belly up last month - no pun intended! -), "Navel Park" and all kinds of "navel" things.    

This festival itself was a lot bigger than the Yachiyo one and quite extravagant.  There was a laser show, a taiko drum concert (see top page of the site for a picture) and lots of fireworks.  We were asked to dance with the international group and although I couldn't get many of the moves right, it was fun.  Michiko and Kirin and Mayu came out too as did Yuki's Mom and Dad.