Random Catching Up - an Uninspirational Summary

There's been numerous house parties, a bizarre yakuba enkai involving volleyball, small silver fish and really bad jyakoten (wow, how do you spell that in English?), an evening of dinner/karaoke with the most sincerely kind and coolest ALTs ever, a typhoon (!), an earthquake (!!), a trip to Kyoto (!!!), and a small crush in my life all since the last time I blogged ten or so days ago.

I'd like to write a more meaningful summary about it all since it really has been a lot of fun but unfortunately I am out of time. Why? There are last minute details for tomorrow's Ehime AJET bbq/camping party in Niihama which I helped plan (we're expecting 50 people). And after an all-day all-night party involving sports, cooking, moonviewing and stargazing (I bought two bottles of sake and lots of dango just to get it right), I'm off to a concert in Misaki on Sunday with the ekaiwa folks. For those of you who are familiar with the layout of Ehime, you got it right.... just as soon as Aaron and I manage to book a rental car then the four of us ("Triple-A plus K") will drive from the southernmost tip of Ehime to the northernmost tip and back again all within 24 hours. We hope to live to tell the story!

Monday I'll visit the sumo dojo in Nomura to reserve seats for Ehime AJET and make a pitch for a community-AJET fundraising sumo event. Next Friday I'll be in Misaki again for a music performance and moonviewing party, Saturday I'm off to Oita-ken on Kyushu island to watch some famous O-kagura dancing, Sunday I return to Misaki by ferry to participate in the Aki (Autumn) Festival. The following weekend is my own community's Aki Matsuri and I'll be doing my part to pull the Ushi Oni (cow-demon) while singing folk songs and drinking lots and lots of sake.

In between all of this, and hopefully during my more sober moments, I'll try to update my blog and call home. But please consider this my heartfelt apology if I fall out of touch for yet another few weeks. PS JoJo - I WILL be in touch soon!!! I mean it!!!