Catching up...Bon Odori Festival

So the night before Chris' accident, we attended an outdoor festival on the Esplanade in Georgetown called the Bon Odori Festival.  This festival celebrates Japanese culture, which tells you just how cosmopolitan Penang is....you see, being a British protectorate (not a full colony), Penang was occupied by the Japanese during WWII, yet there is still an enthusiasm and acceptance for Japanese culture today.  The weather was terrific with a nice breeze off the water to cool things down.  The food tents were incredible - so much to choose from, we struggled to make a choice and were then so hungry we took whatever we came across and didn't bother to take any photos.  Ladies and men in traditional kimonos were quite common and lovely to see.  This lady was one of my favorites - traditional kimono, modern accessories!

There was an opera singer and children's drum team to start things off.  Then the lovely ladies (and a few men) took the stage for several dances.



Brenna Boo had looked forward to this festival for several weeks once she found out there was a game in years past where kids could win goldfish!  Indeed, there were several games, but all she was interested in was the goldfish scoop.  You are given a flat rice paper paddle and can "scoop" as many of the fish into a cup as you can before the paper tears from getting wet.  We had to do it twice and she ended up with 4 goldfish.  One (the largest) was already upside down before we even left, but the other three did just fine.  Even through all of our long days back and forth to the hospital, these little guys hung in there and ate like little piggies.  Eventually though, they started to die off and sadly, none made it past two weeks.  However, we did determine that they developed "ick" and possibly "fin rot" (which one of our previous batches suffered from), so today we headed back to the aquarium shop and picked up some medicine to kill the parasites that cause those diseases.  So, two more goldfish have joined our family and we are hoping this time, we can keep them around for a while!

We also rescheduled our trip to Krabi, Thailand for Brenna's mid-term break in October instead of next week as we had originally planned.  Instead of Maine lobster, we will be dining on prawns and sitting on the beach this fall (we hope).  Chris should be getting off the crutches by then, so this will be cause for celebration!  It was a nice, relaxing day in Penang!