This weekend was the Aizuwakamatsu Samurai festival (the Aizu Aki Matsuri). I went up first thing Saturday morning (unfortunately after a heavy night drinking with Kane the night before) and met my friend Yui, his wife and kids (Kanon and Taikey), and two friends from Niigata city who we met at the last Aizuwakamatsu festival (the one with the hot water). We had a great time (despite my hangover) and got to see the parade set off from Tsurugu-jo (the castle). There were battles at the castle before the many Samurai mounted their horses and rode through the town. After we'd been to watch them perform down the main street, Shimadori, we went for some lunch. It was a lovely day as it's still very sunny but much cooler than before. I opted out of an evening of festivities and settled for some spicey miso-ramen and an early train ride home. The reason being that Sunday morning my Town Hall staged an earthquake emergency drill...at 7am. Very Japanese of them, surely most people would prefer to have that kind of thing on a Friday afternoon! Anyway, the town alarm went off and I got up and went to work like the trusty servant I am!

This is Chiba Shin Ichi, he's a famous Japanese actor. He was in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films!

This is my friend Padraic (from Ireland) taking part in the parade with his concubine!

Our friend from Niigata city and Kanon, Yui's 9-year old daughter.

The Red Samurai.

One of the nicest things about Saturday was spending more time with Yui's children, they're really nice kids and a lot of fun to be around. This is Taikey who is 6. He just has so much energy and never ceases to make me smile! We spent a lot of time playing with insects as all Japanese boys love to do! I think Yui is a very lucky guy to have such a nice family.

Matto no ichiban tomodachi...