4th of July

 

I've never actually NOT been in the US for 4th of July. Despite the fact that it rained right after we lit off all the cheap CHEAP (and short lived) sparklers I bought at Marunaka (and filled my garage with smoke), it was a fun 4th of July. Since it was MF, I made vegan potato salad, ramen-noodle salad, vegan corn bread, and vegan banana/choco/peanut butter ice cream. Of course, beer was also consumed and many silly dad jokes were told. All in all, it was a fun holiday with my American friends. The only thing missing was that Matto didn't bring over his Bruce Springsteen record to play on repeat.

One last point of interest. Yesterday I went to the Ioki Hoikuen and watched my future first graders dance around, sing, and play taiko. I've never had so many of my students be quite so excited to see me before... As soon as I got to the school, three of my third/fourth graders came running up with their arms open to hug me! I also had one of the CUTEST first graders, Momoka, drag me into the haunted house with her since her mother was apparently eating and too busy to go. After the festival, I went home and watched the movie, "少年メリケンサック" with De-, which is about a girl working for the music industry that gets pulled into the world of punk music. It was WAYY too real to life (actually) and me and De- kept exclaiming every time a new character that acted/sounded like/LOOKED like one of our Kochi punk friends came onto the screen. It was basically the story of our weekends here (and the story of Aggression in about 15 years, lol Hiro and Yousuck included). I highly recommend it~