A Nice Thursday Evening & Possible Change of Plans...

Well, it looks like there is a chance Fuji will be postponed. The area is on red-alert for a typhoon, but we lose a lot of money if we pull out of the tour, so we're waiting to see if it gets cancelled. We were supposed to have school-wide softball and dodgeball games Wednesday and Thursday this week, too, which got cancelled (gave a Ppt on my life right before coming here and did a music lesson instead), but I am kinda hoping the trend continues if the weather is really going to be that bad. On the positive side, maybe it will be nice... and I think we'll do Fuji in 2 weeks (and get to see a friend that lives near the base of the mountain) if it does get cancelled. And we might play dodgeball tomorrow anyways (I am totally in on that one if it's true, but I'm a little worried about getting pelted by my first year boys - let's hope I am still a good catch!!).

So tonight was a really lovely evening! I met this guy named Shota at the IFA Farewell party on Saturday, who lives in Virginia, but is home for the summer. He's 23, but has been in America for 6 years and speaks perfect English. It's just interesting meeting someone who is so educated on the subtleties of my culture, yet knows my community here well, too. We clicked right away as friends, and he invited me to have dinner with his family this evening. I went to his house (about a 10 minute ride away) after work and met his grandparents and his mom. We took his dog, Lucky, for a walk around the river in Harimacho and through the ancient village settlements before going back to make dinner with his mom. He's going to come to the Gion Matsuri (most famous festival in Japan) in Kyoto next week, so we took a little trip to the bookstore to try to find a good guide book, but otherwise, it was just so relaxing to hang out with a family (they're so kind), cook real food, use some nihongo (Japanese) and play with a pet all night! I need to get to bed, but I am definately in a satisfied and happy mood.