And he has arms!

I just had a most brilliant weekend with excellent people who I definitely don't see enough.

Friday after school I flexed my under-developed domestic skills and created a huge huge huge bowl of tabouleh from cous cous I had found at the foreign foods and tons of fresh veggies from Uoroku. I packed up my car and headed into Kamo where Rosalind was hosting a potluck dinner at her apartment. Dinner was excellent; great food, lively conversation, plentiful wine-flow followed by 2 hours of ridiculous karaoke. It was really nice to have a change of pace and meet some new people. Ta Rosalind for the invite!

On Saturday I headed home in the morning and made a few phone calls. I had the afternoon free so instead of lazing around or heading out to spend money I don't have, I got serious and cleaned out my closets. I managed to separate my massive amounts of clothing into three piles: stuff I want to keep, stuff I could potentially sell (there isn't really charitable-giving here) and stuff that should never see the light of day again. It was quite an accomplishment and I realize I definitely need to send another box of stuff out to Portland.

At 3:30 I headed into Sanjo to meet Makiko and her family, friends and random neighbors for a barbecue. Again, the beer and food were fantastic and for 3 hours we ate, drank, talked and laughed. Ah, so fabulous.

At 7:30 we headed to Rocket Pink where Koken's band was playing in a jam night. It was awesome cause I got to see all my old friends from last year's Pearl Jam days, and I realize now that it might have been the last time I'll see most of them. The other awesome thing was that Kat and I finally managed to engage in a piss-up together after about 2 years of failed attempts. She and her friend Lindsay came and the three of us totally rocked out as the gaijin girls.

Anyway, the night was a boozy one and the bands were cool and there was just a very good vibe all night. After the concert we headed to an 'after party' at Cafe Cleo where we continued the drinking and socializing til about 3:30 in the morning and I totally scored digits of the hot bongo player from one of the bands - a last month fling to rid me of any bitterness toward Japan perhaps?

And here are some photos to further ruin my chances of a future political career...
Koken who now has giant hair and awesome English

Yay! Me and Kat

This awesome picture was taken to display that that "special car" had the highest ceiling ever. I distinctively remember laughing so hard my face hurt at this fact and Kat's incessant singing about the special car

Ako-chan

This is Kosei, the son of one of Koken's bandmates. He's the coolest kid ever and he was tooootally getting down. The parents made him wear earplugs, thank goodness!



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Oh, and other awesome things:
-Mad props to Sarah who found us an apartment in an awesome neighborhood in Portland for only $695 a month. This means that I'm paying merely $50 more than I'm paying here in the middle of nowhere Japan.
-Yesterday during one of my 1 nen sei classes, a girl handed me a letter and said, in English, "this is from my sister." I read it and it's from Miho and Asuka, two of my favorite girls who graduated last year. They wanted to see how I am and they gave me purikura of them and a girl I somewhat-affectionately nicknamed "Crazy Girl" in my first year. Seriously, how sweet is that?
-Today I was handed a pile of evaluation cards where students ask me questions and I correct their questions and answer them. Today's target is "Have you ever..." My favorite question was "Have you ever listened to Melissa music?" Um, what?
-OMG 35 days