Sado Earth Celebration 2005

On Friday, I went over to Sado Island for the annual Earth Celebration Festival with Aaron, Grace, and some of the other ALTs. We drove down to Joetsu and took a ferry to Ogi to see the Friday night concert. The taiko drums and other performances were *amazing*. I really wish I could've taken pictures or video or something, but the security was pretty tight. Anyway, after the concert we set up tents and camped on Sobama Beach. Quite fun all in all, although I think the best part is often getting home and taking a nice hot shower afterwards.



Click here to view a few pictures

There have also been stirrings of self-sufficiency - I've been getting more of a handle on this whole living-in-Japan thing. I've mailed stuff at the post office, driven to Sanjo (the next city over), made my first withdrawal at the bank (after my first payday), paid my rent, and both located a mall and shopped in it (I'm so glad I'm Japan-sized). I also finished yet another Haruki Murakami book, Sputnik Sweetheart. I think I'll probably try to read all of his books in English and then make it my goal to finish After Dark (his latest one, which I started in my translation class last fall) after that. Maybe the reading will go more quickly if I'm not trying to find the precise nuance of every word...

Tomorrow I get to go to Osaki Junior High, one of my "one-shot" schools. One of the English teachers there called me this evening to let me know she's meeting up with me in the morning. So far I've just been hanging out at Kamo Junior High, my base school, so it'll be exciting to see another school and to talk to some of my other teachers. She sounded very nice. Anyway, I'm out for the night - hope all of you are doing well!