4th of July!!!

Today was the Forth of July, and it was a great day. I didn't do any homework, but just had fun all day. The morning started with watching some funny movies. Then I got to talk with Sarah Weeks (Sa-chan!) on chat - she's one of my Japanese classmates. Then I had amazing yakisoba for lunch with all of my favorite toppings added. In the afternoon I got my new 定期券（teikiken, or commuter's pass).

In the afternoon I went on a walk for the specific purpose of collecting pictures for a blog post later. I walked by the train station, over to the mall, and around a wooden walkway by the bay. I still can't believe that I went all this time without realizing the bay was this close. I knew it was somewhere near, but seriously! I also saw a sign right next to the water that basically said this: "Warning: you will die if you stand here during a tsunami." I laughed so hard at that. Really? You mean that standing in the water during a tsunami is a bad idea? 知らなかった。。。

I had to hurry back afterward because I hadn't prepared my lesson for class. It turns out that I really didn't even need to prepare a lesson today, but I didn't know that at the time.

Class was great. I basically rambled on about all of my memories of the 4th of July including the hot air balloon launch, the parade, BBQs, and fireworks. I also played games for about 25 minutes with my beginning class. Then we had a 50 minute break/BBQ to celebrate. It was a bit of a funny BBQ. It is the first BBQ I have ever had where everyone ate with chopsticks. They also had TimTams, and chocolate milk if you wanted a TimTam Slam, but I just ate mine plain and went for the Calpis. We also had hot dogs slightly thicker than a pencil, and hamburgers that were about the size of chicken nuggets. They looked so sad on the regular-sized buns. We were able to share our BBQ with the missionaries since it was their preparation day. When they came into the building, they were completely drenched. It was pouring outside. I think they enjoyed the food, and the chance to talk in English.

After eating, I went into the gym with the high school students and played with a volleyball. We didn't quite have enough room or players for a full-scale game, so we just messed around. I think it is so funny to listen to their Japanese. There really is such a difference in language in between age groups, and also between genders. I laughed a lot. James also joined in after a while. We played for quite a while, until we were all tired. Man, I will have to get them to play volleyball more. Usually it is basketball, which I don't really like. If it is volleyball, I can at least hold my own. I might spend my break times in the gym from now on.

The advanced class was also fun, although I ran out of time for the game because I got off on too many tangents. Sometimes I think the advanced class is one huge tangent. I have a lesson planned, but most of them don't need much of the material, so we end up just talking about whatever.

When James and I left the church after class, it started raining harder than I have ever seen it rain here. I was thrilled, but James was less than overjoyed. It was a little like walking in a shower, except with more water. More like standing under a faucet. It was fun. The streets were deserted, and had turned into little rivers. I wasn't expecting it to rain this hard, so I was wearing sandals. My feet were soaked in no time. I get the feeling that even if I wasn't wearing sandals, my feet would have been soaked. By the time I reached the train station, my pants were soaked from the knee down. It was an adventure - an epic adventure. I loved it!