Ashley's Moving Castle and Fireworks

My castle is my suitcase and it moves around. Anywho...

Woot.

So, on Saturday the 26th I moved house. I packed that morning, and tried to remember to get everything under wraps but as you know there always is something that has to be left behind, it is just rite of passage, isn't it? Don't worry, it was only my loafers, it was just lucky that I saw Yui on Sunday so she could return them to me before school started.

I left the house around 3-ish after having like a little Pizza Party thrown with the family, I don't know why pizza but it was nice all the same.

The family, minus Yui and Kouta.

When I gave them their thank you card they gave me cute little farewell notes in from each member of the family in Japanese, of course, which meant it took me forever to read them all but the sentiment was there and I did tear up a few times. Moving was harder than I though. I mean, I did live with them for three months, ridiculously loud and annoying or not.

So, 3-ish we (just the mum and dad) left the house, the hardest person to leave I found was Ojiichan. He is just the cutest little man and even though I didn't understand him half the time, we really did get along. He was just sweet in the whole, old-man way.

Ojiichan and Obaachan

We made our way to like, Higashi-Isahaya were we met Akane and her mother at the front of a big drugstore called Cosmos. When I saw the sign in the car I felt my stomach sink. Just the whole re-adjustment thing in itself would be hard, but Yui had previously said that Akane's mother sounded scary or something which made me scared. In truth, she isn't all that scary but just having the preconception that she was made evrything a little more tense and made me a lot more nervous.

But, we met and everything was fine. I cried a little when saying good bye but I tried not to so the next family wouldn't feel bad. I felt a little bit like property being handed over so simply, ah well...

In the car, it wasn't too bad, the house is pretty close and thankfully, it wasn't the hole I thought it to be. It isn't Nagasaki by a long shot but it also isn't the desolate little farm house I expected. I have my own room with a cooler to fend off all of the evil Japanese heat waves. Stupid summer. And I have a dog, it's not Lucy but Chako and it is nowhere near as cute but it is nice to have a dog again. Chako didn't really like me at first but we are already on our way to becoming fast friends mostly due to the fact that I continuosly pat him and give him the attention I've wanted to give to Lucy over the last three months.

The first night, Nozomi, the younger sister, had friends over. They were so cute and they asked for my autograph. Epic Lolz. So I wrote my name, signed it, drew a smiley face and dedicated it to them. They thought that was pretty cool, don't blame them, they are only like 10.

So, all in all the weekend itself went pretty quickly. On Sunday we went to the train station to figure out my ticket and did a little bit of shopping, I didn't buy anything, it was mostly 100 yen stores. Sunday afternoon, Akane and I went to check out some little local festival which happens like once a year, it is a Taiko (Drum) festival to celebrate having finished the harvesting of the rice or somehing. It basically consisted of the people in that area playing flutes and one big drum and two little ones.

Some of the kids playing the flute songs by memory. The girl on the left is one of the girls I gave an autograph too and the one on the right is Nozomi, the younger sister. After a while, one of the Dad's dragged Akane kicking and screaming up to play the flute for one song.

Most of the people there were just kids but I still think it is really charming how everyone knows these Japanese culture drum rituals that we wouldn't even think of in Australia. Just shows that it is different.

Sunday night, the most of Kokomi (Our class name) gathered together at a YakiNiku bar, one of the ones were you have your own little grill in the middle. For around 35 dollars you could get all you can eat from the menu, mostly meat and vegetables, and free use of the drink and fairy floss bar. The food was really good, it just kept you wanting more. The meat was really nice quality and it was always hot as it came straight of the grill. That was an offer too fun to pass up. In all about 30/40 students turned up, the party was a farewell to the 4 students going to Melbourne in a week or so and Yui who is going to Canada soon-ish.

This is Kiyo-chan, he is our 学院長 (gakuinchou) our class leader. His voice is quite high and he likes anime, he did the Suzumiya dance for me. Lolz. Oh, by the way, did you know a second season of Haruhi has just started. They've released two episodes so far.

This is Shigeru who everyone just calls Geru. Everyone pays him out about being dumb but it is always jokingly and he takes it in good humor.

After eating massive expanses of food, we did the whole 'illegal fireworks' thing that Japanese people seem so fond of doing here.

Kiyo with fireworks.

Arina with Morishita behind.

Mako, left, and Hikari playing with fireworks.

Akane, a.k.a Baby as we have two Akane's in the class. This is the one I'm not staying with.

Not to mention that we had a couple get together which is super cute but they are both pretty shy around each other still. Hopefully that will wear off. I think the class is making it a little awkward for them.

Kosaka and Anna

And can you believe that the guy in the above photo is actually the guy in the photo below too?

I have new train buddies, they are Akane's friends and they seem really nice. I hope we can go out in the holidays which are coming up pretty soon. I want to try and go out with people from the class a lot but not having a phone in the holidays is a definite disadvantage.

Today, we cooked Chanhan which is basically like Chinese fried rice but not so greasy and some soup with Carrot and Daikon (Japanese radish) that was for lunch and now, in like 10 minutes I have double sport. How horrible is that, we have double sport every day this week in preperation for Taikasai. Ewww...Lolz, sport is finished now and we had to decide on activities for Taikasai. How hilarious, I am doing tug-o-war and this odd race wear two people wear a giant pair of pants, one leg each, and run a short distance. That is going to be really embarrassing but it is a lot better than doing the 800 meters or something.

I got my Chocolate. Thank you mummy, absolute life saver. The book too, I don't know when I will be able to get to the library. For your trouble you can have a strange English t-shirt I found at Shimamura.

<3

Ashley-chan