Japan is known for its incredible festivals, filled with tradition and history. These festivals are also incredibly fun, with really good food and fascinating things to see. One of the largest festivals in Japan is in our prefecture, which is like a state in the United States.
This is called Nebuta festival, and we were fortunate to be able to come this year together. Last year only Leanne came since I got COVID but this year I could finally come!
Aomori is the name of this prefecture, or region of Japan (think of it like a state in the United States).Our friend Haruka also joined us. Forrest is so silly!
From Wikipedia: “Nebuta” refers to the float of a brave warrior-figure which is carried through the center of the city, while dancers wearing a unique type of costume called haneto (ハネト) dance around in time with the chant Rasserā (ラッセラー) (shortened dialectal version of “irasshai”, calling visitors and customers to watch or join).
We got front row seats to see the float parade!
Unfortunately, Forrest didn’t sleep much on the bus ride there so he was a bit grumpy during the parade.I’m so glad Mom was able to come all the way to Japan and join us!Forrest got a bell from one of the parade dancers! This is said to bring good luck and fortune.
The floats are intricate and hand-made, each telling a story from old Japanese folktale. They are lit from the inside and hand carried through the streets of Aomori City.
Even with all the excitement, and baby’s gotta sleep!
Time to visit family in Florida. Forrest got to discover the magic of the gorrio, a rocking swing like thing shown below that calms babies down super fast and helps them go to sleep. This one came all the way from Africa and is the same one both Zahra and I used.
Forrest liked feeding the horse.
While in Florida, Forrest had a playdate with Cici. He was truly on his best behavior, and all he wanted to do was play with Cici. Unfortunately, Cici was only interested in playing with the puppy. Sorry, kid!
The flight to NY with a fresh baby was loooooong. Thankfully, we had a bassinet, which really helped!
Welcome to America, little buddy!
Adjusting to the 12 hour time difference was a bit of a struggle, but I think Forrest did better than us at it. His Yeye took good care of him when we got home!
I’m going to really miss these contact naps. Forrest playing with his cousin Aubrey.Went to the mall and got a stylin’ new hat.
We went for a hike at the beautiful state park nearby. Forrest loves being in nature, just like his parents.
Forrest celebrated his 100th day of life, which is a big celebration in Japanese culture. During this celebration, he had his first solid food: a grain of rice.
Of course, when you’re in Japan, you have to go to an animal cafe.
After the sad farewell to the Chens, Leanne and I stayed back to squeeze out a few more days with family before we head to Japan. Even though Aliya and Kaden were in school, everyone else has work, they all still took time to spend time with us and make us feel special during our short time home.
If there is one role I play for the Rawji’s, it’s undoubtedly tech support. I spent a full day setting up all the new tech to bring Mom & Dad to the current year 2023, with new gadgets and gizmos. To be honest, the short break after the full beach day, Disney, and Universal was needed! But the break *would* be short lived.
Aliya, Kaden, Zahra, and Mom the week before had gone to Discovery Cove to meet dolphins, swim in the reef with sting rays and fish of all kinds, relax on the lazy river, and refresh with pineapple ice cream. Mom wanted to re-create this experience with Leanne and me, and by goodness she did!
Discovery Cove was incredible. Leanne and I were accompanied by Aliya, Kaden, and Mom. Unfortunately the rest of the family had work and couldn’t come. We started the day with a nice breakfast, then snorkeled under the reef. Under the reef was hundreds of fish, massive sting rays majestically swimming about, and there was even a tank with sharks! SHARKS! Hours flew by in what felt like minutes just appreciating all of the beauty. After lunch (and ice cream), we headed to meet a real-life dolphin.
(This is obviously not our family but just pretend, I can photoshop it later!)
We headed to the lazy river. This was a long stretch of warm water (there were a lot of kids in there come to think of it.. did the water have a yellowish tinge to it? sorry Aliya!!) for which MOST people could use a pool noodle to relaxedly float down and around. I say most people because I was not one of those people! I think Kaden stole my pool noodle 3.. or maybe 4 times? And Aliya got me with jumps and splashes. Mom and Leanne steered well clear of the chaos 😛
On the way to the end of the lazy river was an aviary where we fed tropical birds from all over the world. Leanne loved this part (Leanne actually loved every part, but also this part). In the middle of the lazy river was a literal monkey island where a bunch of little monkeys lived that we got to see. Sea otters was next before we got to the end where we could enjoy being in the water while eating pretzels and cookies.
After the lazy river, it was time to meet a dolphin. Meeting the dolphin was such a cool experience. Our dolphin was one of the “silly” ones, and her personally showed in the way she swam to us upside down. Kaden made sure to ask the photographer for extra pictures so we got more time to pet the dolphin. He didn’t want the pictures, just more time with the dolphin, and I can’t blame him because so did I!
Then it was time to head back to the reef. Now having seen it once, I was.. still completely blown away by the majesty and beauty of the animals within the reef. Leanne looked like a kid in a candy store. Aliya showed me all around the reef. When I tried to take Aliya around the reef, I got so distracted by all the sea life under me I didn’t make it further than 5 feet from where I started. It was clear Aliya needed to the take the lead! And lead she did; we saw the fish, stingrays, sharks, hidden areas, eels, starfish, and just explored and explored. By the time we knew it, it was already 5pm and time to go. No pictures were taken because phone + water = bad news.
The day wasn’t quite over though, because it was a special someone’s birthday! Kaden!! Maa came over with tumbwadeezi and samosas, Zahra made delicious food, and we spent time together celebrating Kaden’s birthday. Gifts included but were not limited to: the aformentioned orbi gun (I got hit with this a few times), a periodic table of elements with pieces of the actual elements (except the radioactive ones!), and lights that float using.. either physics or magic. It looked like magic.
Yum! Subs!! Kaden challenged us to eat them with no thumbs 😛
Happy 12th birthday Tom DeLeone! I mean Kaden! Sorry, the jersey confused me for a second.
Magic or physics? You decide.. Actually the answer is physics.
Sadly, eventually, the week did come to a close. I loved spending time with family, especially since we’ll be moving to Japan soon. I’m ecstatic for the Japan adventure to come and have been enthusiastically watching J-dramas, anime, reading manga, and learning the writing characters while going through old photos of me and Zahra from our Japan trip. But I’m also going to really *really* miss family. As I said in the last post, I wouldn’t trade this week in Florida with everyone for anything.
Here’s some more photos from the rest of the week.
Aliya getting her early b-day gift and all the newest emojis and features!
The Chens flew to Orlando for the Chen/Rawji family vacation of a lifetime. For Ashley and Anna, it was the first time flying ever. The first night, we enjoyed some Indian style cooking at home and spent time together. It was like home, like we’ve all known each other all along!
The first day we went to the world famous Daytona Beach. For the Chen’s, this was the first time at a Florida beach! The water was so warm, the sky was clear, and the waves kept coming in! It was a perfect beach day and we all had a blast.
After the beach, we enjoyed eating at one of Dad Rawji’s favorite Daytona restaurants, Salsa’s.
After eating and going to the Daytona Flea Market, we went to Buc-ees, the United States’ second largest gas station. Tyler loaded up on fudge and Aubrey fell in love with the Buc-ees mascot, for which her parents had to buy a little Buc-ee to take home. One of the cutest things was Aubrey saying “I love you Buc-ee” to the gas station mascot. Last stop before home was the Daytona Flea Market where Kaden, the birthday boy, got his early birthday gift of an orbi toy gun.
That evening, the “kids” went out while the adults rested up at home. First stop was Downtown DeLand. Unexpectedly, DeLandapalooza was going on. There were 22 concerts simultaneously going on throughout all downtown. While this was fun to sneak into and check out, after a little bit we were ready to move on to the next adventure. We headed for Gator’s Dockside where Anna tried gator tail for the first time.
Now it was time to rest up for Disney! The next day we headed out early to get as much of the day at Disney as we could. Magic Kingdom here we come!
The whole day was magical. Somehow, all 13 of us stayed together the whole day! So many rides, so many shows, so many parades (including a pleasantly unexpected rainy day parade), so many things to see and do. Aliya and Kaden helped me and Leanne buff up our Disney pin collections. We saw it all, we rode it all, we ate it all!
The night ended with a spectacular fireworks show over Cinderella’s castle. Though it was raining and eventually pouring, that didn’t stop us from enjoying the amazing show.
Time to get home and rest up! The very next day we headed for Universal Studios.
Diagon Alley, The Mummy ride, and all the other sites and attractions were incredible to see. Nothing like pumpkin juice and butterbeer!
That evening, Mom Rawji made “Marry Me Chicken” with pasta, as well as a Carrabba’s inspired dipping sauce for Publix white mountain bread. The dinner was a massive hit! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad Chen eat so much in one sitting, but I could understand why because the food was incredible.
While Ashley was trying to put Aubrey to bed, she looked at Leanne and said “I want out!” Of course, Leanne said she should go to sleep. Aubrey then played her next trick, “I’m hungry” while holding her tummy. Hook, line, and sinker, Leanne was like putty in her hands. Leanne took her to the kitchen and got her a strawberry to eat. Aubrey ate the tiniest part of the strawberry then proceeded to play every game she could think of with everyone. Peek-a-boo, hide and seek, floor is lava, telephone, etc. etc. etc. We ended up all staying up a few hours later than we all expected just talking, hanging out, and playing with Aubrey.
This was such a fun and rejuvenating week in Florida. Spending time with my family on both sides was so fun, and only made better by how it felt like we had all known each other all along. Everyone felt at home and had a great time. I wouldn’t trade this week for anything.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were magical. Not only did we weather the once in a generation storm in Western NY, but we got in safely and stayed safe throughout. We also got a white Christmas!
After all the presents were opened and Santa had gone back to the North Pole, there was still fun to be had. First stop, ice skating!
Me and Leanne playing tag on the ice skating rink.🤣🤣🤣Leanne demonstrating she can ice skate backwards. Leanne and Jacob
As a send off and last big get together for the NY family, we all went bowling today. Leanne scored 114! However this wasn’t enough to beat her arch nemesis rival, her grandfather Papa who beat her with a high score of 124!! He continues to wear the bowling king crown.
Oh the weather outside is frightfulPresents under the treeYearly arm wrestling tradition. Time to open presents! Another yearly Chen tradition. Siblings are all stacked by order of age. Bottom to top: Leanne, Tyler, Jacob, Anna
Family picture. We didn’t mean to match with blue and burgundy but it looks cool.
This was the final day of the vacation. The Colorado vacation wouldn’t be complete though without a proper snowball fight and sledding! We found a place on the way called Loveland where there were awesome ski hills perfect for our next trip, snow for snowball fights, and hills for sledding.
With a whole trip filled with fun and adventure, it was time to head home. We made for the airport.
Chillin’ at the airport lounge until our flight.
This vacation was one of our bests! We all missed Rob tremendously as he couldn’t make it due to work. The trip was such a blast and we cannot wait for the next one!
