Day one - wakeup to four pm!

Already an eventful day and it is only four pm.
This morning Aleeza and I went for a great walk. I wanted to find a certain train station nearby, for future reference, so I looked on the map and we found our way across an amazing shrine. Turns out it is a UNESCO world heritage site, thousands of years old, and we basically discovered it by accident. Along with expansive gardens, there are a number of amazing buildings built with traditional methods and materials. As we entered, a group of priests in white robes and funny hats walked by in a neat row, then we watched as they circled around what looked like a bowl of fruit and they began chanting. It was my first day here and it was morning, so there were very few people around and I felt very nervous about taking pictures. I did snap a few shots at the gate on our way out, where we saw a group of schoolkids in their matching outfits. We continued along the narrow streets and crossed a traintrack after waiting for two cute little trains to go past. We could hear some shouting from a nearby building so we stopped and looked - there was a Kendo class going on inside, and we could see the kids inside fighting each other with their bamboo sticks and we could hear the instructor shouting out their instructions. Then we arrived at the train station I had been looking for and saw a poster for a burger shop that offered a "tower cheese burger" that had to be seen to be believed. We had a grape soda, then continued back to the guest house.
This afternoon we walked to a park a short distance down the river. It was a hot day so lots of people were splashing around. As we approached the water, Aleeza said "WHOA WHOA WHOA!" and pointed to the water. A large snake was swimming up to us! (Scott - any idea what type of snake this was?) Undeterred, we played in the water while Jana fetched some Bento (box lunch) for us. We hung around and watched the people - so interesting - a woman in full kimono in the river, teenagers splashing each other, naked babies, even a few other foreigners enjoying the beautiful day. After a while we ambled to the covered market area and bought snow cones that were all sweet and sticky. We are back at the guest house relaxing before going back to the covered market for the Tanabata festival and street fair. Our hosts here invited us to join them for the fair and then to shoot off some fireworks, which by the way can be purchased everywhere.
So many images I want to remember from today - the loudspeaker van shouting political slogans, the pretty petite Japanese girl with long tinted hair in fashionable clothes driving a Harley Davidson, the housewife riding her bicycle along the river with small dogs in the baskets - one in front, one in back.