Small town festival

Another cool thing about our trip to Esan was the festival we stumbled across: Mikoshi (the portable shrine above), fireworks and dancing were a nice bonus to the camping experience. Yosakoi dancing is a great laugh, and is a style that was resurrected by a couple of students at a Hakodate university about 30 years ago. Since then it's become amazingly popular throughout Hokkaido and even the rest of Japan. The dancers below were of mixed ability (check the out of step chubby kid!), but it did give me a good taste of what is an essentially cool cultural dance.
Some fool said there weren't enough pictures of Chihiro on the site, so it's not like I need any more prompting than that. Shame I always look so grey-haired and pasty in pictures next to her, but what the hey, camera flash is not my friend.

Kawai~~

I expected this little lass to miss her lesson on Saturday night in favour of the Yunokawa festival, but from what I gathered from her mum she was keen on coming in and showing it off! Soooo cute =)

Surfers

Out in all conditions - rain or shine, waves or no, these guys just don't give a damn.
Despite the sub-zero temperatures for half the year and the lack of any decent waves there is a small but dedicated surfing community in Hakodate and nearby Esan. Unlike surfing communities everywhere else in the world, these guys are really friendly and welcome rank beginners with open arms, tasty barbeques and board loans. Yay.

Keito!

Winner of the 'most-likely-to-visit' award in recognition of her all-round greatness. Depicted here in her natural habitat, demonstrating her deft mastery of simultaneous smoking and drinking.

Have fun in Scotland, and good luck in Uganda!

Lots of love