Sunday, June 12, 2011

Chagu Chagu Umako Festival & Morioka Zoo

Kyle and Erika told us about Chagu Chagu Umako Horse Festival. This festival is in honor of the draft horses and has been practiced for 200 years. This is supposed to be a reward for the horses. They are decked out and trot from Onikoshi-Sozen-jinja Shrine in Takizawa to the Morioka Hachiman-gu Shrine in Morioka City. Michael had a men's breakfast to attend Saturday a.m. so we didn't meet the caravan to Takizawa.

We set out a couple of hours later though and had a great day. It was BEAUTIFUL weather. Not to hot and not to cold....we chased the horses around the route....always seeing wheelchairs being loaded and folks packing up....never seeing a horse. Finally - in Morioka near the train station we caught up with the horses!  They were beautiful, but we did wonder WHO thought loading a horse with so much finery and making them trot 25 miles in the hot summer was a great reward. LOL



These little guys were DARLING. One little tyke was actually ASLEEP. 

Stacia is partial to the ponies. 

The Clean Up Crew


We walked back to Family Mart and bought lunch....chicken on a stick, some wonderful soft, chewy bread and fried potatoes..... Look closely at this box....right hand side of the box...see the little toothpick? They think of EVERYTHING here.

As we ate our lunch, I told Michael about the zoo. I wasn't 100% sure we could find it as we were in a totally different part of town...but really how hard could it be? He had missed our first zoo trip as he was playing with the camels in Afghanistan. He was game if I'd go try to get some directions.

I did....Arielle prepped me...in I went to the store....asking very nicely, "Morioka dobutsu wa doko desu ka?"  I thought "Morioka Animals" was fairly close to zoo....but I didn't have much luck. They kept telling me about the horses. I had to resort to my lion and monkey imitation AGAIN.  Ah....they got it but the map I bought from them didn't go up Rt 4 far enough to pin point the zoo.....A gentleman said he would show me how to get there. Um.....I told him I was sure there would be signs....He said, "They will be in Japanese and I think you may not read Japanese well?" ::snort:: I told him there should be pictures....no he and his friends wanted to show me how to get to the zoo....well....OK! I told Michael to follow the hybrid Honda. ::snort::  Wow - is that NICE??????? They took us right to the parking lot and it is good they did as we were in a totally different area of town than I thought. LOL  

We had a blast being at the zoo with Michael.  Mostly, we loved being a family  together. We had company Friday night and that coupled with Saturday's outings set us up nicely for the three weeks that Michael will be gone.
 The Big Horn Sheep and Prairie dogs were hits....made me lonesome for Montana. The younger ones enjoyed the petting zoo. 


Any guesses as to the purpose of THIS sign? 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~

Living all of life before the face of God...

4 comments:

Cynthia said...

Very kind of them to give a personal escort to the zoo!

Linda said...

Pin the tail on the correct animal?

Anonymous said...

Well, so many things I could guess. Please do tell us. love/prayers - Mom. So glad Mike and you all got to enjoy this together

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

I have no clue what the sign was for....maybe I should ask Akiko San.

Yes, it was GREAT, Cindy.