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Walking back to the station, we saw this act entertaining the throngs. This monkey was cute. He didn't seem to have much of his heart in the act, but he did a good job, anyway.

Jonathan and Brian, another teacher he works with.

I don't know who these girls are, but they're sure beautiful.

Jonathan and Kento.

Jonathan goofing around with some kids.

Me and Kurumi. I'm not sure she fully remembered who I was.

A few weeks ago, after Jonathan had finished fixing something, he grabbed his soldering iron to make sure it had cooled down. But apparently he didn't test it gingerly enough. Look at those blisters. Hoo.

On October 29th, the annual Halloween Party for Frontier English school was held. I showed up to help out as a volunteer. These are two of my former students, Yuta and Masahiro, preparing their eye patches for a photo-op.

At a large nomikai that I attended with many of the other teachers and staff from Chiba Jyoshi high school. This is the kochyo-sensei, or principal. At parties like this, it is polite to show deference and gratitude to your sempai (superiors/bosses/mentors, etc) by pouring drinks for them. So I grabbed a carafe of sake and walked to kochyo-sensei's table to pour for him. It felt great to participate in that tradition, although I was shy at first.

Preparing to head home.

Watching other acts on stage. Day 2.

There was a swedish film crew at the festival, shooting footage for a popular swedish TV program. Those two white guys on the right are Filip and Frederik and are apparently hot celebrities in Sweden. Ooh-la-la.

Getting ready to play.

L to R: Haga-san, Jonathan, Sonoda-san

Jonathan and his band, the Elm Hill Ramblers, played a few songs at this festival. They were great. Here they are waiting to go on stage.

Believe it or not, you can pay up to 2000 yen (20 bucks) for these sometimes in stores. Kids like to play with them as little pets.

A kuagata beetle that was flying around near the stage. It was tough to get it to let go of my finger.

There was a lot of good jammin.

The weekend of August 27th, Jonathan and I went to the annual bluegrass festival in Hakone. We stayed with our friends in this bungalow.

Before we left for the day, Fumiko's sister dug up some sweet potatoes for us to bring home with us.

This man enjoyed talking to Jonathan.

At a certain point, the group stopped and sat down to eat and drink beer (at 10am. Yikes).

Kari and I found opportunity to be helpful carrying the omikoshi. Woo hoo!

Fumiko and her sister (our hosts) cover their hair.

The next morning, about 10am, the festivities started again. Each team marched past the houses in their neighborhood with more shouting and cheering. We ran out the door in time to catch them walking past, and then decided to follow them on their route. It was beginning to rain.

We walked down to the beach while we waited for dinner to be prepared.

Here are photos of some of the rooms we slept and ate in.

The genkan itself.

Near the genkan (entrance) of the home. In traditional Japanese homes, this narrow corridor runs around the inside perimeter of houses.

Fumiko (Jonathan's student) invited the three of us to spend the night at her grandmother's house in Ohara. It was wonderful. Here grandmother's house is an old traditional-style Japanese home. It's huge,too. We had a big sushi dinner with some of the family and slept comfortably.

This gentleman had already begun enjoying some festival libations.

These gentlemen were relaxing on the roadside after the main event excitement.

Stopping in a roadside restaurant while walking back from the festival, I happened to see this violent seen in the restaurant aquarium. This large shellfish had either killed or found this dead fish and was in the process of feeding on it.