Wow! Nearly 2 weeks and no posting!! Sorry to those of you who keep up with my island life, but I seem to have been coasting along mindlessly on the tides of life and have had nary a chance to stop and look around.

Ayumi's wedding party was neat; a black-tie after-wedding ceremony just for friends and co-workers. (The real ceremony is often very private, family only.) The bride and groom arrived; he in a tux and an afro wig, Ayumi in a pretty pink party dress and lots of orange leis. The atmosphere was lighthearted as we grank champange and played bingo and other party games; I was drafted for a drink-a-beer, chug-some-wine, swallow-a-banana relay race (I drank the beer). My Japanese team-mate Masa was the banana-eater; after cramming it in his mouth he had to put the peel on his head. We didn't win, but it sure was funny! Masa told me that the young Japanese people felt 'freer' than usual-- more like individuals and less like a collective-- due to the presence of foriegners. Masa and I hit it off, discussing cultural differences and pros and cons of our respective societies at great length. We exchanged numbers.

Work, work, work. The lessons are getting mindless, so I often have to remid myself that the students are here to have fun, so I better try to enjoy myself, too. I'm finding it frustrating when the students come to class and then go out of their way to not participate, but I have to remember that some people have to come because their parents or companies make them.

I caught a cold-- my first in over a year, and not a bad one, but enough to slow me down and make me groggy. I had planned a trip to Osaka to see my friend Shannon (a fellow graduate from the OUC Fine Arts Programme, and now a fellow Nova instructor), and decided not to let my cold stop me. The bus ride was quite beautiful; nearly 3 hours long and over some of the biggest and most fabulous bridges I have ever seen. It was quite different from my terrifying, jet-lagged 1st bus trip to Tokushima! I met Shannon and his friend Caroline, and the three of us set off for Kyoto on the local trains, only 40 minutes and about 400 yen (about $4) away! We met Masa (who lives in Kyoto) and he presented us with plans A, B and C for our lunch-- complete with estimated travel times to each location, and the delicacies offered by each place and so on... Shannon opted for the organic vegetarian buffet, and I was so overwhelmed with the train rides and the fact that I was in a bustling big city with PEOPLE everywhere that I agreed-- I didn't even really hear the other options. Anyway, the food was good (woulda been better if there was meat in it) and we went from there to the tenemangu shrine market-- lucky me! Only open once a month, on the 25th! The chances that I'll ever be free on a sunny 25th in Kyoto are slim, so I took photo after photo. Stall after stall-- second-hand kimonos, antiques, junk, candy shaped like cats and unicorns and devils, AnPan Man masks, goldfish, fire a BB gun and win a pack of cigarettes, get your palm read... it was absolutely overwhelming, and this was just the hundred or so stalls around the outer part of the shrine grounds!! Once in the inner part we rinsed our hands ceremoniously (thank goodness for Masa who acted as our guide and caretaker for our entire time in Kyoto) and explored. We rubbed a stone bull and then touched our heads so our brains would grow intelligent. There was one BIG shrine, then many other smaller ones spread throughout the gardens. I threw a coin into the box at the little kitsune (fox) shrine, rang the bell, clapped my hands, said hello-- then did the same at the next shrine with Shannon when Masa told us that it housed the Art gods! I spoke with some junior highschool girls who were practicing their English. They took my picture, and I took theirs. I couldn't believe how many foriegners there were; I have to admit, I've gotten used to being visually different, and didn't like the feeling of being just one more gaijin tourist.

After the market, we parted with Masa, who had a dentist appointment to attend. We three headed back to Osaka, Caroline hopped off the train and onto another to get to her house and Shannon and I headed further out into his Osaka suburb of Fujidera. What a cute little town! More like what I expected Japan to be like; traditional houses, little paved roads and traditional gardens... actually, quite a lot like the suburbs of Tokushima but with fewer apartment complexes and more rolling little hills that take the streets up and down and off in exciting directions. We stayed in his wee one-room apartment that evening, making art together and talking and drinking beer. The next day was spent exploring Osaka; I saw some wild fashions and a beautiful little gallery with Ukioe prints, but we mostly went from cafe to cafe as it was raining and we were both exhausted. I would love to go back and 'do' Osaka properly; it's such a cosmopolitan town! But in all honesty I was glad to get back to Tokushima, my own little city. Afetr Osaka and Kyoto, it feels quite a lot like home, and I realize how lucky I am to be close to Mt. Bizan and my beautiful castle park, and my rivers and rice fields. Nothing like feeling like you are in the right place at the right time!