I'm a displaced person whose culture let me down, I raise my own daughters in a pornographic town. - The Pretenders, Every Mother's Son

***************WARNING. NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG EYES!************

Okay, so my friends here told me about a fertility festival that was going on today. We weren't really sure if we'd feel up to going out since Cameron just arrived in Japan Friday and is dealing with a cold and jet lag....but then I told him what the festival was going to be like and we just had to go.

You can read about the history of the "Festival of the Steel Phallus" here.

We were lucky enough to have a really nice day for the festival. It was sunny and not too cold. I showed Cameron how to walk to the train station from our house and then bought him a Passimo card. It's just like the DC Metro Pass. It makes traveling on the train around here very easy.

A couple quick shots of our house and car. Also, my handsome husband. :D

Then, we were off. We met up with a bunch of my new friends here to ride the train into Kawasaki. You will find that you can really get "close" to your new culture in Japan by riding the train. It was our first time to stop and transfer and find our way around. It is nice that we can drink and eat on the train...but no talk. Just kidding. All the Japanese are quiet, but we. We were loud.

We got to Kawasaki and made our way to the shrine. You could just follow everyone (and the people dressed up as male genitalia) to the shrine. There, you found crowds of people drinking chu-hi's and sucking on lolipops shaped like male and female genitalia.

It was an interesting festival and I was quite surprised to see Japanese, who are normally quiet and reserved, jumping around and wearing phallic symbols. 

It also was our first big group adventure here. Cameron was a good sport, despite being jet-lagged and sick.

We people watched and had some chu-hi and moved on. :D

We stopped in Yokohama to go eat at a tex-mex restaurant on the 29th floor in the Sky building. It was nice to be able to have guacamole! It was almost like we were back in the states for a couple hours.

After that, the group headed back and Cameron and I wandered on to Yodobashi Camera Store. It took a few U-turns and looks at the google maps app, but we eventually found it. It's basically a HUGE Best Buy or something, but they have a whole floor of camera goods. Digital and film. Lots of film and developing items. The first thing Cameron and I saw when we turned the corner was a large case of Leica's. In unison we both just said, "whoa....". It was impressive.

Needless to say, this was Cameron's dream store. We shopped and then headed for the train to get back to Yokosuka. It was a long day and we were both exhausted, but it was pretty fun way to get out on our first weekend together.