It has been a few years since we have gone to the Japanese Canadian Community Picnic up at Caledon Place. When Shanna said she was coming for a visit this summer, she wanted to go to the picnic. Between the Tanabe and Uyeda clans there were 36 of us there.

The weather started out a little threatening of rain, the dark clouds were rolling through when we arrived. The rain from the previous day had made for some soggy conditions. The area we use to set-up was off-limits and even the race field was too wet in the middle. Mark and Gaila were up there early to get a good spot close to the road and with a few trees.

Melissa brought her puppy, Todd. Here he is with Chloe looking on.

Lily taking a little time to warm up.

Susan with Todd.

Lunch time. Thanks to Mark for bringing his dining tent.

The sun kept coming and going early on. There was a good breeze for most of the day which kept the mosquitos at bay.

Kaiden.

After lunch it was time for the races. Here are Claudia and Alex in the under 15 3-legged race.

Angela and Gillian in the 16-40 3-legged race.

Shanna and I in the 41+ 3-legged race, as you can see the race was over before we managed to get halfway down the field.

Next up was the Under 15 Geta race.

The Uyeda and Tanabe Clan cheering section.

Emi, Claudia and Alex were doing well and even leading at the beginning.

And then the wheels started falling off and down they went for a DNF.

Next up was the over 15 Geta race, our team was Danny, Gillian, Angela and me.

Again we were doing well, but as we neared the finish line we lost some of the magic, and eventually finished in third place in the first heat.

In the third heat it was Justin, Ryan, Raiden and Darin.

Soon Justin started to go down.

Followed by the rest of the team.

They were back up but it didn’t last long and they ended with a DNF.

Gillian and Angela were looking for some footwear for the shoe toss. Here are the girls with Auntie Shanna and Mom and their matching footwear.

First up was the Under 15 shoe toss. Hard to believe that this is Claudia’s last year to compete in that age group.

First up was Jesse.

Then Claudia.

And finally Emi. I think Emi’s shoe went backwards.

Gillian and Lily running to the shoes. Notice they are both wearing different shoes on their feet.

Next up was the 16-40 shoe toss. Here is Gillian with her attempt.

Angela had a good toss, she hit the light pole that was in the middle of the field, it may have been a first place finish based on the projected trajectory. The one guy marking the shoes thought she should have won a prize, if not for distance than for accuracy. She did get a consolation prize.

The men’s 16-40 shoe toss was next, with Darin, Justin and Ryan. Ryan was leading early on with the help of a good bounce.

The women’s 41-59 came next with Gaila, Shanna, and Carolyn.

Danny won the men’s 60+ event which was closet shoe to the pylon. Although his big clunky boots slowed us down in the Geta race, it did help his shoe toss, as there was no bounce once they landed.

None of us fared very well in the Saikoro dice game.

The water balloon toss was the last event.

Danny was tossing to Gaila, Alex to Gillian and Jesse to Angela.

Angela was wet and out, and Gillian was thinking she was going to get wet by the expression on her face.

I don’t think Gillian’s toss made it back to Alex.

Darin waiting for it to come down.

Justin and Ryan made it to the final three.

Lily getting ready for the candy scramble.

Not sure if she knew what she was suppose to do.

Angela and Claudia at the back (right) picking up the scraps.

Kaiden with a few candies in his hat.

As always the candy scramble seems to be the highlight.

The girls with their loot.

Bingo was next, we had a strong contingent, there were 18 games of bingo, 15 regular and 3 special games. Of those either a Tanabe or Uyeda clan player won 9 of the games. Gaila was the big winner of the last game which was a 50/50 game. It was a $80 pot that she split with one other person.

Gillian avoiding the goose poop.

Todd playing with some pop cans.

A video of Todd, not sure Chloe knew what to make of Todd.

It was time for dinner!

During dinner they called out the fukibiki draws and share the wealth. We won two of the fukibiki draws, Gaila and Mark won three, but we were all shut out on the Share the Wealth.

Given the number of relatives that showed up for the picnic, it deserved some group photos. Here is photo of the first cousins, first cousins-once removed, second cousins and second cousins-once removed.

Grandma taking a photo with her iPad.

And one with Alex, who was at the washroom.

Next was the first cousins and spouses.

Then it was Dad, Mom and Auntie Margie.

A photo of the girls with G-pa and G-ma.

Here is picture from 2008 of the girls and Grandpa and Grandma.

Here is group shot of the Uyeda clan. Mark has the classic “sitting in the front row of a school class photo”.

And finally the Tanabe clan group photo.

It had been seven years since we had been to the picnic. The last time was in 2008, you can see my blog entry from then here.