Happy Festive Family Accident

After a busy day of singing lessons, errands and having my keyboard tray installed, I decided to head down to Mountain View again for that Japanese Obon Festival that I was too early for yesterday. These Japanese summer festivals, which are traditionally homages to death, light and celebratory of the spirit that has now left us, are held every weekend from late June to mid-August at a different location sprinkled all over the Bay Area at a different Buddhist church - last weekend it was San Jose, this weekend it was Mountain View, next weekend is in San Francisco - but I know this one in particular in Mountain View is a good one, not to be missed. So I hopped in my Impala and made my way down the 101 again. I arrived and quickly chowed down on some cold yummy noodles served by those cute older Japanese ladies so polite and quiet who remind me of my Grandma O.

Lo and behold, I ran into my mom's cousins who live in the area and who as I later learned make it a point every year to come to this particular obon. It was just before the traditional evening dance of the obon where little girls and women wear traditional kimonos, others wear colorful hapi coats to signify a certain Buddhist church affiliation. So my mom's cousins, my "aunties", gave me a hapi coat to wear and I joined in the dance using varying props like flower branches, fans, cloth towels and wooden "kachi kachi" hand clackers. I didn't know the steps but there were traditional Japanese dancers onstage to help lead the three large dancing circles. Fun! - what a happy accident to run into family members and join in the festivities! They'll join me next weekend for the obon fest here in San Francisco!