weekend! (the last one, that is)

It was busy.

Saturday, we had the sports festivals (undoukai) at our respective schools. These are yearly athletic meets where the students at a given school compete in one another in various races, relays, dances, and rehearsed shouting matches. It's a spectacle, but my school is so small (29 students in grades 1-6), that the kids themselves wouldn't really have been able to put on a very long show. Enter the Shibayama Volunteer Fire Department, about 25 members of which (seems excesssive for a town of 8000, but what the hell, it's Japan) took part as well. Not directly against the kids, of course, but with them in some relay races, and against each other a few times. Now afterwards, as is tradition, there was a drinking party at a hall near the school, attended by the staff, the PTA, and (in this case only) the fire department. After the vice principal slumped onto his side next to me, two firefighters came up to me (as one of the few men still sitting up straight) and one, as he pointed to his companion, announced "he numbaa one drinkaa". It was downhill (or uphill, depending on your point of view) from there.

Sunday we saw our friend Eddie and his wife down near our old city of Kisarazu. We joined him for a BBQ at the Sodegaura Seaside Park (kaihin koen), and my god, I had forgotten how foul Tokyo Bay is. Think Boston Harbor in the 70s, or even better, Lake Erie. Despite the smell, we had a fun time eating a bunch of meat and drinking free beer.

Monday was a holiday, so we slept until noon for the first time in what seemed like years, and Tuesday I ran errands in Chiba City. I had to go to the regional immigration office, which always sucks. I updated my permission to work, then came home to Tomisato and picked up my new alien registration card.

Now it's Wednesday, I've worked a day, and my week is already half way over (Friday is the equinox, a holiday). Weeks should be like this more often.