Monday August 18, 1997: 10pm
Well I am HOME. What a great feeling! I just realized as I was walking back from the station that throughout my whole Obon trip I hadn't thought about work once! Not once! You know you've had a great trip when...
Oh, I did have a bad experience though as I was walking home from the Toyoda Station tonight... there was a Japanese guy following me in his car. He drove up beside me and asked where I was going... then he drove away but in a few minutes he drove back from the other direction, slowed his car down and asked me something else. Then he drove away... and came back. He did this 4 or 5 times. It started to spook me out! I guess the last time I looked really annoyed because he left me alone after that.
Anyways, that's not enough to get me down after such a wonderful holiday!!
Tuesday August 19, 1997: 9pm
Well today was quite unproductive, as expected. I mean, I *had* to tell everyone about my fabulous adventures! And I spent a good 20 minutes showing my pictures to Hirabayashi-san and stuff. I guess I got some work done, but not a whole bunch!
Tonight I had a Japanese lesson and I think my brain is still on holidays! I think what I need is some sleep...
Wednesday August 20, 1997: 10pm
*Whew* Calligraphy tonight. Fun, as always! I got there a bit early so Sensei and I chatted for awhile. Today's calligraphy was "suzu-mushi no koe", or "the voice of little-bell insects". Sensei explained the whole idea to me. See, in the Japanese calendar, the first day of autumn is actually in early August (!!) - and soon after this day you notice the days getting shorter and the evenings and mornings a bit cooler (although *I* don't think it's been much cooler!) - in short, it's the end of summer. Also near the end of summer, the insects like grasshoppers and crocuses (wait, crocuses are flowers... My goodness) start to chirp (ie. like little bells) at night... and this sound reminds the Japanese that summer is closing... So since these grasshoppers were definitely out tonight, that was my subject "the voice of little-bell insects". I suspect that the translation of "little-bell insects" is actually a type of insect, but it's not in my dictionary - so the character-by-character translation will have to do.
Actually, I HAVE noticed the days getting shorter and the mornings are a bit cooler... but the day and evenings aren't! Still, it never drops below 24C. Ouch. Ooo - I've been getting email about my homepage - cool! It's nice to know that I don't type this all in for nothing. Speaking of which - inputting my trip is going to be long and painful!! Ack! [editor's note: Having just typed in the trip -- for the last 6 HOURS.... yeah, long and painful is one word for it...]
Thursday August 21, 1997
Aaah. Today I had lots of good news. Seems like Simon'll be in town next week to dance in a Bon Odori (folk dance) so I'm gonna go next Thursday and party it up. Then on Thursday night Dave's getting to Tokyo (the lucky bum found out just yesterday that he gets a business trip to Hirooka all the way from Sapporo! Wow! Since that's during the week, and he has to fly out of Tokyo anyways, he's gonna hang around for a bit) and that should be fun. And on Saturday (bday!) I've got to run my 19kms (tradition - gotta run my age) then Simon said that there's a festival somewhere else that's supposed to be big. Wow! It's gonna be a fun weekend. Oh yeah, and it seems that there may be a chance of Jason being in Tokyo next weekend, which'll be cool. Speaking of Jason, I was talking to him on Monday, and it seems that people in Ueda think that *I* am his girlfriend. What a coincidence, because I've been asked the same thing many a time. Umm... I don't think so! (no offense Jason, if you're reading this) Plus, if I had a b-friend then I'd have to change my homepage description from "single" to "not single" and we all know I'm too lazy for that..
Time to cut this off cuz I'm starting to babble.
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