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So in April, I went with the Osaki's to Kochi prefecture Zoo in Noichi. Okay, so not exactly summer, but I don't know where else to put these cute shots
I love how my Obachan is totally pointing to the Zebra's butt
On May 22, I went on a 50 to 60 KM bike ride from Kochi City along the coast line to Usa. It was utterly exhausting, but sitting on the beach and looking out made it all worth it. I love that feeling of being smaller than a speck of sand standing by the great ocean. Along the way, I got a wicked sunburn on only the knees, oddly enough. Made for one interesting tan line.
On May 27, my little host sisters in the third family, Hikari and Maako, had their Undokai, which is like a Field Day. I'll admit, these are a bit boring if you aren't involved in playing, but when Hikari invited me with such a passionate excitement, I couldn't refuse. And it turned out to be a very fun occasion, especially to catch up with my 3rd hist family.
My host sister, Hikari, is the tall girl standing, 4th from the left.
In early summer, most parts of Japan get visited by a rainy season, the so called tsuyu (or baiyu), literally meaning "plum rain", because it coincides with the season of plums ripening. The rainy season is caused by the collision of cold northerly and warm southerly air masses, which results in a relatively stable bad weather. In most of Japan, the rainy season lasts from the beginning of June to mid July. As you can see, or maybe not, from this Kochi Newspaper, it looks to rain all week. Wonderful.
On June 16, I traveled with my host father, and Michiyo to Matsuyama. Luckily I was able to meet up with the lovely Aussie exchange student in Matsuyama, Bron Parks. For a few hours we took over the city of Matsuyama and enjoyed our gaijin alliance.
Matsuyama is the capital of the Ehime-ken, w.hich is somewhat like a state. The baseball team of Ehime is the Mandarin Pirates. Mandarin as in the orange. Even if you don't have a sense of humor, the idea that Pirates and Fruit can be combined to form a baseball team must be rather amusing. Here we are posing with the touch fruity mascot
I'm going to let this be Self-explanatory, but if you are still wondering what it is, see the 'Only in Japan' page.
Okay so, I really wanted to have a Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha really REALLY badly. But when I finally got to the counter, I decided I'm probably only ever going to be able to order this once. So I got the Azuki Frappucino, or Red Bean Frap. Only in Japan would I be able to drink it. And it was DELICIOUS!
On thurday, June, 21, Ioffcially completed Nihon Buyou, or Japanese Dance. I would have taken more pictures, but intead I made a long movie with all our dances on it. If anybody wants to see me make a fool of myself in Japanese, you are welcome to come and view it! But anyway, the last class was horribly sad. I didn't like dance that much, but I loved the teacher. It was so sad to say goodbye, and it was a bitter taste of the upcoming month.
On June 23, 2007, I went out with last year's exchange students, Yurie Hirosue and Masako Ichihara. We've been trying to hang out for a long time, but Yurie keeps cancelling on us. Finally we got around to it. We changed out of the uniforms in Dimaru, then headed to Chibo Okonomiyaki. Afterwards we trekked to Karoke, and spent 2 and 1/2 hours singing in Japanese and English. Ryuugakusei love!
Our Okonomiyaki chef poses for a picture
I'm so cool. I'm singing in Japanese and reading it right from the screen.
These pictures are nothing compared to the fact that I filmed the 3 of singing, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Sakuranbo (Japanese), and Bounce With Me (Japanese). I'm blackmailing myself.
On June 24, 2007, I traveled with Chiake and her family to the middle of nowwhere Kochi, to see her grandparents. I honestly think that they only wanbted to see me, because they'd never spoken to a gaijin, or foreigner before. Crazy, right? We should be kinder to those Mexicans at home.. haha. Anyway, we went and had noodles and then it started raining so we couldn't do anything else. But all in all, it was so much fun. I'm so lucky that I have Chiake, who really is my best friend here in Japan.
Look at me. I'm such a microphone hog.
We went to this really awesome restaurant, where you place cold noodles in a water fountain that swishes around in a circle. Then you have to try and catch them with your chop sticks. Needless to say, I had a difficult time.
These are just some cell phone pictures from Chiake's phone. We had a college student come and assist Fukumoto-sensei, who turned out to be Ms. Kochi. In the picture of everyone, can you tell which one she is? She's wearing her old school uniform, so good luck.
