Sakuho Town

I have a ketai (cell phone)! And a bank account. And a hanko (stamp that serves as your legal signature in Japan). And a couple of bowls (mine were all too small). And a lot of cleaning products (to hopefully get the moldy smell out of my shower room).

Friday we ran around like crazy setting up accounts and buying things. It's kind of surprising, but cell phones here are bigger than the states! Of course, their primary function is email/web browsing/mobile tv. For supper Julienne and I went to the house of a couple of our conversation class students (these people apparently go out of their way to make the ALTs feel welcome every year). They cooked us a wonderful, huge meal (see picture above). Every time something I hadn't tried came up, they offered it as a challenge; "pickled plum challenge" "soba noodle challenge" "seaweed jello challenge" "natto challenge" etc. (All of those were good, except the "natto challenge" which never actually happened) All of adults were unsure of their English, but went out of their way to speak to me. It was really sweet.

Yesterday I went to Matsumoto BonBon Festival- the largest festival in Nagano Prefecture. We drove across the prefecture to get there, and it was just gorgeous (although 5 people in a 4 person Kei car is a squish). Thousands of people gather to dance up and down the main street, while drinking and socializing. Nagano AJET (the Association of JETs) organized a group, so I got to meet some of the more established ALTs in the area. There was food at a restaurant beforehand, then 4 hours of dancing up and down in 90+ heat and high humidity. Afterwards there was more food, then a group of us that were staying the night went off to one of the ALT's house (where he magically managed to fit 15+ of us on futons, and then cook us pancakes this morning).

Today we drove back, and then I went on my first major jaunt around town without supervision! One of the guests on Friday brought us more eggplants, cucumbers, green peppers, onions and beans; and Julienne left for her homestay in Canada with the students today, so I got hers as well. So, I had to get to the grocery store to buy things in order to make those into a meal. Very hot, but really satisfying to manage to do something all on my own (and the pasta sauce I ended up making wasn't half bad either).