TOMADACHI

Tomadachi means "friends." These are my Aimachi Tomadachi.

JAYWALK

It seems like Jaywalking is not only allowed, it's encouraged! They paint the lines right across the middle. This is efficiency at it's best.

SHABU SHABU

Our first performance today followed by a dinner I will never forget. The marching band director took the Americans out for dinner to an authentic Japanese restaurant. I can only try to explain the evening in the following paragraph and pictures. . .

Private rooms to eat in - shoes off at the door please. Sitting on pillows on the floor at a table that is 12 inches of the ground. Served by Japanese waitresses in authentic kimonos that kneel to serve you everything from a hot towl, to saki, to appetizers, tea and bring the main dishes which was called "Shabu shabu". We took raw meat and vegetables and cooked them ourselves in boiling water (at our table) and then enjoyed. Extremely delicious when dipped in these sauces...









and for dessert: Cherry Blossom Ice Cream. NICE.

SPANKY

I saw this yesterday while shopping in downtown Nagoya. This is my brother's nickname, and so I instantly thought of him.

TGIK

Thank got it's Keenyobi (Friday). Today was good. I did some general handy work around the church, and then rode a bike into town. Spent about 2 or 3 hours cycling around. Had to buy a shirt for my uniform (we have a community performance this weekend), then a quick stop at Mister Donut for an afternoon snack. After that just cruised around and tried to take everything in. The colors, architecture, nature, design, smells, sights, and sounds... many things are the same as in the U.S. but with so much uniqueness to it.

SIX FLAGS

Whew. Awesome day yesterday. Oksama (which means "wife", and we call her that because she is the wife of the man the runs the church) took myself, the other American Mandy, and our friend Sotaro to the Japanese version of six flags. Now there are several cultural phenomena that I do not get particularly excited about: sports, shopping malls, theme parks - but this was really cool. We where only there for a short time, but I took a tone of pictures and did all the rides I could. Here are some shots...

"White Cyclone" was the first on the list. It is the standard rickety old wooden roller coaster, which is a must at all parks. As we approached something caught my eye: Interestingly enough their are two flags right before the first drop - yep the red, white, and blue baby. They must have knew I was coming. On another intersting note, if you look close you'll notice that it says, "DO NOT STAND UP" . . .
in English . . .
in Japan. . .
What's that tell you?
Yep. We're idiots.



Here is the same roller coaster from above (waaaaay above) while I am on the ferris wheel. I could make a pretty good argument that the ferris wheel was actually the scariest ride there. Very HIGH, very SLOW, very WINDY. Did I mention the park was built on the shore? The shore of the PACIFIC!



Here is said Ferris Wheel.



This was as we where walking out of the park. While I did not even think about jumping on this particular ride, I did enjoy all the screams that were coming from it. As well as their legs flailing about.

WII

This is for all you gamers out there (Brettster). I stopped in to my friends room the other day while he was playing Wii. He asked if I wanted to play bowling and even though I am not particularly coordinated at video games, I do enjoy knocking down some pins from time to time. However, this was not ordinary bowling. This was some Japanese version of Wii bowling with 100 pins on the lane!!! I couldn't believe it. No matter how hard a threw the ball right into the center pin, I could NOT knock them all down. It was pretty hilarious. And of course, leave it to me to come up with the dreaded 70 - 100 pin split. Oh well...