Tuesday, October 9, 2007

oktoberfest und mehr

yet another re-cap of a jolly good long weekend. on friday, i was invited to dinner by the kyotosensei (vice principal) of my elementary school, and her daughter, who is 22. we had a delicious feast of sushi at their lovely home in a rural area just outside of honjo. i got to meet the grandparents as well, their grandmother told me proudly "i am seven-seven" (seventy-seven yrs old!). they were all so warm and friendly, they recently had an american english teacher not on the JET programme do a homestay with them, and invited me back again whenever I wanted. on saturday, a fellow ALT from Idaho, Tristen, organized an "oktoberfest" party at his house in northern akita - german sausages, sauerkraut, and spaetzle were enjoyed by all and general merriment ensued. the next day i visited another ALT from Kentucky, Maureen, in her beautiful old house near akita city. we found a place to bowl and also drove out on the oga peninsula, a wild and rugged type of preserve, where there was a fun aquarium. enjoy the pics!



a fore-promised pic of my favorite sign in honjo

sunset over the rice paddies on the way to northern akita

oktoberfest merriment

scary giant namahage statues in oga

sho, kuni, maureen, mihoko, juls and cristian at bowling

the angry sea of the coast of oga

edel and me

cathy, edel, juls, and maureen at the oga aquarium













my friend the polar bear doing a nice back stretch






1 comment:

Gina Mauro Art said...

i really like your blaaagghh, and i miss you! i like your pictures of the ocean, reminiscent of my first ever trip to cape cod as a toddler apparently jabbering the whole car ride there about how i couldn't wait to swim in the ocean. the arrival of course included me crying and saying "NO OCEAN! NO OCEAN!"