In which our hero has a three day adventure while fighting illness

I had a long weekend.

It was long but not too expensive, which was good. I still had a lot of fun and I didn't have to spend too much money. Yay!

Friday

Taught at the middle school and had a good time except for my sore throat. As is customary, I wore a mask.

I also took some nature shots at my school:

For fourth period, we watched a movie on the making of the song "We are the World". I don't particularly care for the song but the video was interesting. I didn't know Dan Akroyd was on the track...

For the last period, a couple of teachers invited me out to play a cops and robbers game. I was a cop, along with the two other teachers and three students, while about 25 kids were the robbers. There was a jail in a central location and when a robber was tagged they went to jail, waiting for another robber to run by and tag them out of jail. Running as fast as I could, I was able to catch most of the kids. We had a lot of fun but it tuckered me out!


Saturday
I woke up at noon and still felt sore in my throat. I called my friend in Kashiwa and we decided to try to go for a walk in a big garden, for free, and go see an old mansion/museum, for free. I hoped on a train and two hours later I met up with her and the rest of our group. It was raining when I got to Kashiwa, so we decided to forgo the park and instead go eat ramen. Good choice!

After ramen, we went to sing karaoke:

Sing it ladies!

Laura, Ian, Mikey, Sara, Keegan!

Then we went bowling:

Bowling balls painted like basketballs!

Sweet bowling shoes!

I'm on top, my name is Archibald

Bowling backwards

Strike!

Saw this after bowling. Guilt laden gift bag...

After bowling we went to a bar called the Hub. It is a British style pub where a lot of foreigners hang out and pick up on Japanese people that want to meet foreigners.

Sir, your pants are obscene.

Playing 20Qs with the internet.

We went back to one of the guy's apartments and had dinner and almost watched a movie. Instead of watching said movie, we talked until 4a.m..


Sunday
Waking up at about 11a.m., we went to Kashiwa again to hang out outside, for on this day, it was sunny.

This girl's shorts were too short to be named so.
Down by her hand, you can see their cuff.
They also are held together on the sides by rings.
She was nice though and let me pose with her.

House between two store buildings

Black people who love music or people who love black music?

This guy was playing with some balloons. I played too.

Orlando Bloom for UNIQLO

Dumbo in Japanese

Squid ink pasta. Yum!

Pilar, the bar.

We were wandering around at night, trying to find a new club or bar to go to, when we were approached by a group of eight drunk Japanese young people. They were really friendly and wanted to talk to us, so we chatted with them for a while. One of the guys pulled out his phone and started playing music for us, asking if we had heard of the band. It was Maroon 5, so yes, we had heard of them. We all started singing along and we had a great time with a little impromptu street karaoke. We said our goodbyes a little while later and ended up going back to the Hub. We met a Canadian guy named Dom and talked with him for a bit, then went back to the apartment.


Monday

I woke up and got on a train. I was still sick and had been in the same clothes for the last two days, so I decided to go home instead of going to see a martial arts festival. Next time!

I made it home without any problems, and I hope I can get better by tomorrow...


Edit: I wrote this on Monday, the 11th of October in the year 2010.