Steven

I just got back from the 8th grade class field trip to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. It was really amazing. When the plane took off, all of the kids were amazed, and I later found out that it was their first time ever to be on a plane. The first day, we went to Kyoto, and saw a whole bunch of temples and castles and Japanese cultural stuff. That night, we slept in a Japanese-style hotel, which was very interesting. The second day, we went to Osaka and went to Universal Studios Japan. The layout was almost identical to Universal Studios Florida, and the rides that they have in common are exactly identical, down to the last detail. For example, in the Spiderman ride, while you’re waiting in line, the shape of all the rooms and the decorations on the walls are exactly the same. And they’re not even translated! There’s a whole bunch of newspaper articles about Spiderman all in English! At the end of the ride, for those of you who have been on Spiderman, he has the anti-gravity gun pointed at his boss’s office, and you see the boss floating around the room. Attached to the gun is a note in English that says “Here’s that raise you wanted. ~Spiderman” IN ENGLISH! Very few Japanese people are that good at English to understand a joke like that, and after spending a day in the park, I’d say only about 1 in every 400 people was a foreigner, and some of those foreigners aren’t even English speakers. The videos before the rides and the rides themselves did have Japanese voices though. The rides that they had included Spiderman, Shrek, Terminator 3-D, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, ET, Jaws, Backdraft (very similar to Twister), and some Snoopy ride (Snoopy is HUGE in Japan.) Another theme they had to that park was Sesame Street, which I don’t think they have in Universal Studios Florida. That night we stayed in a Business Hotel, which means you wear your shoes inside the building, there’s no community bath, and you sleep on a bed. They had to explain these concepts to the kids who were very surprised (“heeeeeee”). After we checked in, they told me they wanted me to come to a teachers meeting at 10:30. Before that though, I had some time to walk around Osaka, and I found a video game store with tons of PS1 games for only 80 yen, which is about 75 cents! I later went back to the “meeting”, and found a small feast of appetizer style plates, and a bunch of alcohol too. The next day we went to an Earthquake museum in Kobe, saw Kobe tower, and left for home. On the bus ride back from the airport to the port, we watched a really old-school Lupin movie.

Today's reason for missing home: You can find hamburgers, pizza, and other eatable things in theme parks... and again with the napkin thing.

December 7, 2005

On Saturday, I went up to Fukuoka by train for the dual purpose of taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and visiting the Bergstroms, who I met at Miami and Tokyo orientation. Fukuoka is a huge city, and it has the second highest commerce, after Tokyo, and they live right in the middle of it. I stayed with them for two days, and I wish I could live there. They have pizza, malls, movie theatres, and even a really nice riverfronty downtowny area, all in walking or short bus riding distances. The test went pretty well, and I’m confident that I passed. While in Fukuoka, I also saw snow for the very first time ever, and I have to say, I didn’t hate it. It was really pretty, and wasn’t as cold as rain since it doesn’t absorb into your clothes, and I was actually able to tolerate it even though I did not bring proper clothes for the weather. From there I went to a 2-day seminar in Kumamoto city on Monday and Tuesday, which was actually pretty fun. At the recommendation of the music teacher at Kita JH, I stayed in an internet café Monday night. He said he does it all the time when he goes drinking and needs a place to crash. Basically, you get a private room (more like a cubicle) with your choice of a reclining desk chair, reclining massage chair, or couch, with a TV, PS2, and computer. In addition, there’s all kinds of free drinks like coffee, soda, and even soup, and even alcoholic drinks for a fee. There is a selection of about 50 video games and 100 dvd’s that you can check out while you’re there, and something like 30,000 comic books. There’s even a shower room, with soap, shampoo, and conditioner, and they even give you clean towels to use. Of course, the only downside is that you have to sleep in a couch or a chair, and since you’re in a cubicle, you can occasionally hear other people, but it’s essentially a library, so it’s very quiet on the whole. Here’s the kicker, 10 hours only costs 1980 yen, which with the current crappy exchange rate comes out to about $16. That’s a $16/night hotel room in a major city in Japan with cable TV, free dvd and game rentals, and high speed internet, and I have reason to believe these internet cafés exist throughout Japan. While in the city, I was able to do a visit to a Japanese doctor entirely in Japanese, and it went just fine. I’ll spare you the details of my symptoms, but suffice it to say that I had reason to believe I had become lactose intolerant, and the doctor told me otherwise, which I was thrilled to hear. To see who’s still reading this, I’m having a poll for this post. Please post a reply, with suggestions for anything you want from Japan. Any kind of souvenir you would want me to bring back or ship you, and you can list as many as you want, in any order, tell me your order of preference, etc. I am making no promises, but special consideration will be given to those who post early replies to this thread, those who have posted often, in the past, and those who post often in the future. Next week I’m going to Kyoto and Osaka with my kids, which I’ve been looking forward to since early October.

Today’s reason for missing home: All of the great foods you can get/make with cheese, that I briefly thought I’d never be able to eat again. By the way, I’m planning a huge 3 week binge of all my favorite foods/restaurants when I get back, regardless of how much money I will spend, how much weight I will gain, or how many heart attacks I will have, so be sure to find a way to take part.

I know it’s been a while since I updated, but there really hasn’t been anything interesting to write about that wouldn’t be better expressed by picture or video on my other site, which by the way has been updated heavily, and is now full of interesting photos and awesome videos. Also, with my new PS2 and the huge Japanese test coming this weekend, I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy. The weather here will soon be colder than anything I’ve ever experienced in South Florida, but I think I’ll be alright. In mid-December, I’m going on a school field trip with my 8th grade students to Kyoto and Oosaka, two of the best places to visit in Japan, I’m told. Last weekend, after a nice American-style thanksgiving dinner with some JETs in Amakusa, I went to Fukuoka for the last day of a sumo tournament, which is a really big deal. The ticket was around $100, and I went with 7 other Amakusa JETs. I will soon put the pictures and video from the sumo tournament up on the site (check it around Dec. 12th), and you will definetly want to see them, as I got pictures with some of the amateur sumos, pictures and video of the new Yokozuna (grand champion), and I also got some pictures of the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, who was there to award the trophy to the new Yokozuna. Before we went to Fukuoka, I had a chance to go into a game store in Hondo and try out Xbox 360. The graphics were really awesome, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was playing as this ogre, who could transform into a fairy or a man-eating plant, and I couldn’t figure out how to open the door, but it was really cool cause the graphics were great. I really encourage you to check out my site if you haven’t already, I put up lots of videos that I think everyone will enjoy, and lots of pictures of cute little kids (soon to be cancelled out by pictures of big fat sumos).

Today’s reason for missing home: Cars that aren’t teensy with shocks that work, well paved roads, and BEDS!!!

Last weekend, I went to Fukuoka with Janet and 4 other JETs, with the intention of going to Costco. Costco was everything people said it would be. Fukuoka is a huge city, and Costco was one of many stores in this huge shopping plaza. They had lots of Foreign products, and they were willing to ship all my groceries (which was a lot, over $100 worth) to Goshoura for only $6. While at Costco, we got to eat American style pizza, which was an amazing experience for all of us. You never know what you’re going to find in Japanese pizza: onions, corn, mayonnaise, octopus, seaweed, you just never know, and they usually don’t even have tomato sauce. After Costco, we went to the onsen (public bath/hot spring) which was very interesting. First, the guys and girls split off into different rooms. Then you get naked and take a shower with the other people of your gender. Then you have a bunch of options. There’s a huge, swimming pool-sized (but pretty shallow) hot bath that everyone goes in together. Within this bath, (at this particular onsen), there was a specific place where they had mild electric currents running through the water, which I still can’t decide if they hurt or felt good. Also, there is a steam room, a sauna, and an outdoor bath with a great view. When you get too hot, there’s a small Jacuzzi sized pool of almost ice cold water. So it’s fun to go from the sauna, to the ice cold bath, and then back into the hot bath. Keep in mind you’re naked the whole time.

This Friday, the Junior High sports team practice is starting up again, so I think I’ll start playing volleyball (enough of this minibare nonsense, although I’ll probably keep doing that too). Also, this weekend, there is a Goshoura Town sports festival, in which I will be doing an 800 meter and 100 meter race. Should be fun.

Today’s reason for missing home: Hot American girls, and the concept of all-you-can-eat.

Sept 29

*(Everything marked with a star will soon have or already has pictures available on my other site.)
Sorry it’s been a while. Now that I’m truly settled in, I actually know people and have things to do. I constantly have things to do, and I’ve had no time for things like anime or TV, and very little time for studying Japanese. Every Monday and Thursday, I have minibare*, every Tuesday, I give an English lesson at my English teacher’s apartment*, and I’ve started taking Taiko drum lessons*. Taiko lessons are every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I can only go on Wednesdays, since I often go to the city on the weekend, to see all my JET friends, go to various JET events, or go shopping. On top of that, the junior high volleyball team is starting practice, which is every day after school, and I want to start doing that, but I’ll have to cut out some other things. Still not sure how my schedule will look 2 weeks from now.

On Monday, the 19th, was “Respect for the Aged Day”, and there was no school, so I had a lunch and lesson* with my 3rd year (approx 9th grade) English elective students. It was really fun, and I want to try to find time to plan another day like that. I’m really starting to get to know my students, and it seems that most JETs are not allowed to see their students outside of school, but good ol’ Goshoura doesn’t care. My kids even know where I live, somehow… possibly system of elimination). Yesterday, on my way home from school, I was really tired and needed to do some cleaning, so I was considering skipping Taiko. When I got home, I found an adorable note* on my door that said in Japanese (but no Kanji) “Today, Taiko is at 8. Please come.” Of course, I had to go, but when I got there, all middle school students, including the kids who wrote me the note didn’t show up. I later found out they had to prepare for some kind of test, but I was confused as to why they wanted me to go. I think they forgot about the test when they wrote the note. It was okay though, because I got a lot more attention at the lesson, learned a lot, and the kids apologized the next day.

Last weekend, I went to a JET event at the “waterwheel”* in Amakusa. I got to see all my friends, including Adam, Janet, Tom, and everyone else. I got to spend some quality time playing the Japanese versions of Smash Melee, Goldeneye 64, (he didn’t have old Smash) and other video games at Adam’s place, and we watched a very important sumo match on TV. Apparently, the two contenders for the position of “yokozuna” were a Bulgarian and a Mongolian. The Japanese hate that foreigners are now dominating their sport, but that’s how it goes. The Bulgarian was the favorite, but the Mongolian ended up winning. Very interesting to watch. We then went to the waterwheel party which was really cool. Japan’s biggest waterwheel*, a small freshwater lake*, with a waterfall*, and a good place to go cliff-diving. I jumped off the rocks*, which were about 5 meters high. Some other people jumped off the bridge* that was about 10 meters high, but I didn’t because I was told it was dangerous (and maybe I was a little scared). I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted, because both of my camera batteries died (seems they’re not lasting as long as they used to), but hopefully I’ll go back there before it gets too cold. Janet and some of her friends are going up to Fukuoka (neighboring prefecture) this weekend (maybe 3 hours by car) because apparently, they have a Costco there. I didn’t know if I wanted to go with them until she told me I’d be able to get American-style pizza, and at that point, my decision was made. I leave you today with a new feature I may or may not continue:

Today’s reason for missing home: Going out with my Gainesville friends and my sister to places like Momo’s, Satchel’s, Cici’s, Ivey’s, Mac’s, and Subway for a cheap, delicious, filling, American meal, and using FRICKIN’ NAPKINS!!!

Lots to talk about as always.
On Wednesday, I was at Kita Junior High School, but they asked me to have lunch at Kita Elementary School. It was a little rough and awkward because not even the teachers there know English, but the kids were very outgoing and adorable. I’ll put up pics soon. Wednesday after school, I decided I wanted to be more social, so I called Kazu, but he was in Hondo. Then I called my host family, the Saito’s. When I asked if I could come visit Thursday, they were thrilled, and invited me to dinner. Shortly after I hung up with them, I heard my name being called from outside my window. It was my English teacher’s wife asking me to come to their place for dinner on Thursday. I told her I was going to the Saitos’ on Thursday, and we agreed on Friday.

On Thursday, I went to the Saitos’ for dinner after work. They had this weird lasagna, which was great, and what looked like some kind of steak. They explained to me that the steak was actually horse meat! Horse meat is a delicacy in Japan, and although the Saitos’ prepared it cooked, it’s often served raw. It was fantastic, I kind of want to try it raw now too. After dinner, I went to minibare, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted.

Today (Friday) at school, I had my tea party (pics up soon, but they’re not as cute as the invitation). At the tea party, I asked the kids what they’re doing on Monday, because it’s “Respect for the Aged Day” and there is a day off from school. When they said they didn’t have plans, I asked if everyone wanted to have an extra English lesson outside of class, and they all immediately agreed enthusiastically (remember this is elective English class, meaning these kids chose to study English during this time). It’s set to happen at Poseidon restaurant (one of about 4 restaurants on my island) at 1pm on Monday, should be fun. As an extra assignment, I told all the kids to wear clothes that had English written on them (hopefully I’ll get some funny ones for ya). After class, I went to my English teacher, Mr. Natsuhara’s house to have dinner with him and his wife and kid, and the PE teacher and his wife and kid. It was also very fun, and I somehow managed to schedule another English lesson for their wives on Tuesday evening. Should be fun, because they’ll probably make me more food, and I also told them to wear shirts with English writing.

Just wanted to say that if you haven't been to my picture site for a while, you should go back sometime. I've made it a LOT faster, and I've added some really cool pics and some great videos. Remember you can post comments about the picture site here (since there is no way to leave comments on that site).

In other news, Advent Children rocks! After the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, I want to translate it. Feel free to post any comments about the picture site or Advent Children in this post (or any post), but be considerate of those who haven't seen it and don't say any spoilers.

So far I’ve spent about 3 days at each school. I work at two Junior High schools, each of which has a corresponding Elementary school nearby which I was told I would visit occasionally.

My first school is Goshoura Junior High School. It’s only about a 3-5 minute bike ride from my house. There are 65 kids and 14 teachers. All three of the neighbors in my apartment building are teachers at this school. I go there on Thursdays and Fridays, and if I feel like it, Mondays too (I usually do).

My second school is Kita Junior High School. To get there, I have to ride my bike about 10 minutes to the port. I then take my bike onto this small (about 20 ft.) boat and ride about 15 minutes to a different island that’s even smaller than mine. I then get off the boat and ride my bike again about 10 minutes to get to the school. There are only 35 kids and 15 teachers. I go there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

About both schools: Part of the reason the teacher to student ratio is so high is because there is no other staff. No maintenance men, no cleaning ladies, no cafeteria ladies, nothing but teachers. Every day after school, but before sports and other activities, the students and teachers (including me) work together to clean the school from top to bottom. The health teacher and the “nutrition expert” make lunch every day. The menu is planned out for two months in advance. The printed menu contains all of the ingredients, caloric content, and plenty of other useful nutrition info that I can’t read. Everything is homemade, and if it’s something that doesn’t disgust me, it’s usually pretty good. The students eat in the classrooms and the teachers eat in the staffroom. However, the students will often ask the teachers (myself included) to eat with them in the classrooms, and the teachers often agree. If that is the case, the students will carry the teacher’s lunch to the classroom for them. Similarly, when it is almost time for class, the students will often come to the staffroom and politely ask me to come teach them. They will then carry my things to the classroom for me. I suspect part of the reason they do this is because the staffroom is the only room with air conditioning, but I’m sure it’s also just how things work around here.

It’s pretty hard to get my English teacher at Kita Junior High School to stray from the curriculum, and I don’t really play a dominant role in teaching either. At Goshoura Junior High School, however, I have a lot of influence on how class is run both before and during class. Normally in Japanese schools, before class, they stand up, bow, greet their professor, sit down, and start class. In English class, they do this in English. They stand up, bow, and say “Hello, Mr. Natsuhara and Steven-sensei.” And then we say “Hello, how are you?”, and then they say (sounding like monotone robots) “Fine thank you, and you?” It was almost as if they were reading off a sheet of paper. Well I wouldn’t stand for that for more than a day or two, so now, in Goshoura Junior High school, I did away with bowing completely. Furthermore, I’ve been teaching them the greetings that you actually here like “How ya doin’” and “What’s up”, and for goodbye, I taught them “See ya later”, “See ya”, or just “later”. They love their new expressions so much they use them with me whenever they see me in the halls, and it’s really adorable.

Another time when I was learning the students’ names in between classes (Japanese names are really hard to remember), one of the kids introduced himself as “Brian”, and all the students started laughing. Obviously, his name wasn’t Brian, but either he wanted to be funny or make my life easier, so now I always call him Brian, the students get a kick out of it, and the teachers don’t know what’s going on. It’s like an inside joke we have, and it’s a lot of fun.

My favorite is the English elective class. These are the kids that actually choose to study English, and naturally, they’re better at it. Furthermore, we have a lot more freedom in the elective classes. Two of the girls in the class are planning a tea party for the next elective class, and they made me an invitation (even though I’m pretty sure they know I have to be there anyway). It’s really cute, and there’s a picture of it up on my picture site in the Goshoura > Goshoura Junior High School section.

Ok, I think I did a pretty thorough job of describing my life at school. Make sure to keep posting comments or I’ll lose my motivation to write.

My trip to Hondo was fantastic. Before I went, I asked around on the e-mail list-serve, and I found two people willing to host me during my stay: Adam and Janet, both second year JETs. We arranged for Janet to pick me up from the ferry port because it’s very close to her apartment.

Day 1 (Saturday, Aug 27th): I had never seen a picture of Janet, but Americans usually stand out in a crowd, so I wasn’t worried. I arrived at a different port than we expected, so I went to a pay phone and called her keitai (cell phone). She didn’t pick up, and just then, Janet beeped at me and waved. However, it turns out Janet is half-Peruvian and half-Mexican, and from a distance, her skin tone could easily be mistaken for an Asian skin tone, so I assumed it was just a friendly Japanese person, maybe someone I had met before. I waved back and kept trying to call. When she didn’t pick up, I started to walk away, thinking maybe she went to the other port, and very confused, she chased after me in the car and picked me up. After a good laugh, we went to Joyfull (Japan’s version of Denny’s only much better) and met up with Adam and Tom (same Tom I hung out with in Kumamoto). After a long day of shopping and sightseeing with Tom and Janet, we set off for the welcome party at a restaurant called Mr. Boo’s. There were about 20 people there, all of which were Amakusa JETs. Everyone was friendly, and it was a great time. After that we went to Karaoke. This was my first Karaoke experience in Japan, and let me tell you, it’s very different from Karaoke in America (maybe that’s why it’s so popular here). First, you get your own room with your group, so you don’t have to embarrass yourself in front of strangers. Then you choose from a bazillion songs. In addition to all the Japanese and Anime songs, they have a better variety of English songs than most Karaoke places I’ve been in America. By this point, lots of people had been drinking and we just had a blast. Everyone was singing and dancing, and I was drunk enough to sing “Love Tropicana,” the intro song to the first season of “Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu”. After that, I went crazy to “Fight for your right” by the Beastie Boys, and I was sure I would never be able to speak again. After the Karaoke, everyone else went to some bar, but we were pretty tired, so we went back to Janet’s apartment, and I fell asleep in her 6-mat living room with Tom and Howard in the same room.

Day 2 (Sunday, Aug 28th): Howard left early in the morning, and the rest of us slept until about 11. Adam called and invited us to go meet him at some beach. After going to lunch, and having the best pizza I’ve had in Japan (still doesn’t compare), we set off on about a 40 minute drive to the beach. When we got there, we had to hike over about half a mile of what looked like volcanic rock, in order to get to the nice, sandy part. The beach was great, and by early evening, we had a group of about 8 JETs there. Some of them brought a grill, charcoal, and food, so we had a cookout. Problem is, nobody brought a flashlight or anything, and it got dark pretty fast, and with the dark came mosquitos. Tom and I took the initiative to build a fire, which went surprisingly well. While on the beach, I went snorkeling, and saw both the sunset and the stars. All three were breathtaking. I think we left around 10, and it was really dark, so we hiked back over the jagged rocks by the light of people’s cell phones. Wasn’t easy, but it was well worth it.

Day 3 (Monday, Aug 29th): Janet had to go to work during the day, so I explored around Hondo on her bike. After work, we went to one of those conveyor belt-style sushi restaurants, which was great and really cheap. Coincidentally, we ran into a few other JETs there, and ate with them. (There’s lots of JETs on the mainland, kinda makes me sad I can only go there on weekends, but then again, Goshoura is fantastic, so it’s not so bad). After dinner, I went with Janet and Adam to an adult badminton club. In addition to the many games I played, I got to go one on one with this guy who goes to competitions. He obviously kicked my ass, but I did pretty well, and I had the time of my life. That night, after two hours of badminton, it was very easy to fall asleep.

Day 4 (Tuesday, Aug 30th): Janet had work again, so I planned to meet her and another JET for lunch during their break. They only had an hour break, and we had some troubles, because the first three places we tried to go to were closed. We finally found a place that was open, but by this point, they only had like 40 minutes left in their break, so instead of deciphering the menu, we kinda just guessed and ordered randomly. Turned out pretty well, and everyone was happy, and they only got back a few minutes late. I said my goodbyes, and headed back to Janet’s place to get my bags and go to the ferry port.

In short, all the Amakusa JETs are awesome, and as much as I love Goshoura, I was sad to come home. However, when I got back, one of my friends helped me to finish setting up my internet, and now I have it in my apartment! If you’re on US eastern time, look for me on AIM in the morning. Also, school starts on Thursday (tomorrow) so I’m very excited about that. I can easily imagine having to make some very difficult decisions in future weekends about whether to go to Hondo or stay in Goshoura.

Holy crap do I have a lot to talk about. I’m gonna break this one up into two posts so everyone can keep up. This post is Goshoura stuff, and the next post will be about my awesome trip to Hondo City.

First, the “mini-volleyball” or in Japanese: “minibare” (Monday, Aug 22nd). This was a very interesting experience. Mini-volleyball is similar to volleyball, but there are some very significant differences. The net is a lot lower, standing with my feet flat on the floor, my entire hand can reach over the net. This is fortunate because Men are not allowed to jump-spike or jump-attack (women are, and it is co-ed). You play with a ball similar to a kickball that isn’t completely inflated, so the thing really goes when you hit it. Finally, you have to hit it three times before you send it over, and you can’t hit it twice in a rally. For instance, you can’t be the first and third person to hit it. For someone like me who is accustomed to normal volleyball, it was very disorienting, but still tons of fun. Afterwards, we went to this restaurant for food and drink. I got a little drunk and I met this guy who’s a paleontology PH.D. who works at the dinosaur museum. His English was surprisingly good.

More minibare (Thursday, Aug 25th): My co-workers saw how much fun I had playing minibare, so they informed me of an adult minibare club every Monday and Thursday night. I showed up at the gym at 8pm, and had a great time playing with the librarian, whose desk is across from mine at the BOE, and about 12 other middle-age women. Fortunately, one of them brought their 14-year-old-ish son, so I wasn’t the only guy. They were all really good, and I eventually learned that they don’t have the “guys can’t jump” rule there, and they kept pushing me to go all out. Eventually I gave in and really smashed it down a couple times, and they loved it. Before I came to Japan, I never imagined I’d be playing competitively with a bunch of women ranging from 30-50 years old (I’m guessing). It was lots of fun, and I hope to go twice a week regularly… at least until I can find some real volleyball.

Now for the welcome party (Friday Aug 26th): On Friday, I got off work early, to begin the festivities for (what I think was) my welcome party. I left work at 2, and went with a group of about 12 other teachers to a 2-hour tour of the museum. When we entered the first room, there were a bunch of models of dinosaur skeletons and some nice background music was playing. I quickly realized that the song I was listening to was “To Zanarkand” from FFX, which was really cool, since it was one of the first sings that I’ve seen that video games exist in Goshoura. Obviously, I didn’t understand what the tour guide was saying, so once the song was over, I got pretty bored. We then all went on a boat-tour of the island. Since I was unable to bike around the island, I was pretty excited to see it by boat. The area I was unable to reach was, as I guessed, uninhabited, although it, like all of Goshoura, was beautiful. They then took us to this really tiny island, maybe the size of a blockbuster video or a large fast food restaurant. We got off the boat and walked along some rocks to a place where there was supposedly a dinosaur footprint in the rocks. When I saw it, I kinda had the feeling of, “saying that this looks like a dinosaur footprint is like saying you see a cloud shaped like a man walking his dog,” but then again, the guy giving the tour is a PH.D. in paleontology, so I believe it. When we got back to shore, I returned to the BOE, where they had a barbecue ready to go. It was a Japanese-style barbecue, surprisingly similar to the one Kazu invited me to a while back, only there was a lot more food, and probably better quality too. They had all kinds of meat and vegetables and lots of beer. Anyway, the party ended, and I hurried home to get ready for my 4-day trip to Hondo City, which was fantastic. Details next post.