お盆 Its time for Obon, which means a week off of work for us....

Obon is an annual Buddhist event for commemorating one's deceased ancestors. The Buddhist festival has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people from the big cities return to their home towns to relax, visit family, and clean their ancestors' graves. Traditionally it includes festivals, and it has existed in Japan for more than 500 years. The Obon week in mid August is one of Japan's three major holiday seasons, which in turn means a week off of work for many of us. It is probably also Japans busiest travel season, so this year due too late planning, Heather and I decided to keep things local.
We decided to spend our first few days relaxing in Utsunomiya but later next week we will travel to Yokohama and then spend a few days across the water in Central Tokyo, sightseeing, maybe looking for a good steak, hitting a few happy hours and generally being tourist.
The heat and humidity this week here in Utsunomiya has been the usual oppressive August fare, telling me it will probably be really nasty in the bigger cities farther south. We will do our best however to enjoy it and hopefully get a few good fotos to share here.