July 9th

Just a random update on our summer activities so far. Today Braden and I had fun making paper lanterns at an activity at the Matsue Community Center, then we rode our bikes around Matsue for a while looking at various hobby shops. Japanese hobby shops are lots of fun to just look at, even if I can't afford to buy anything :P. They always have lots of model gundams, dolls, manga, toys, games, etc. We even saw someone dressed up as a maid in one of the stores we visited today.

It's been really hot today, but thankfully all the stores in Matsue have air conditioning. I guess if they didn't they wouldn't get very many customers in the summer time. The humidity hasn't been as bad this week though, which is nice. When it's really humid it just feels hot all day and all night, shade or no shade. But when the humidity is normal it cools off at night and makes it easier to sleep. (I have such a hard time sleeping when its all muggy :P). The rainy season has officially ended, or so I hear. The rain can be annoying sometimes, but I'm kind of sad to see it go because now it's supposed to get hotter :X. I need to develop Braden's good habit of drinking several bottles worth of water a day so I don't get dehydrated.

For Independence Day Braden and I went to Izumo and had a barbecue with some American friends and even played with some small fireworks. It was a lot of fun, even though I felt sick the next day (must've eaten an undercooked bratwurst or something...). The weekend or so before that we went to a concert in Yonago with an alumni of CWU who happens to be living in Matsue, and that was really fun. Afterwards he treated us to sushi. It was awesome XD. We've both been keeping pretty busy lately. I had more English lessons than usual last month and Braden has his classes and part time job too, but we still have time to hang out with friends. We like to go to Izumo and play video games with out friend Ed, go to free student concerts at the University with our friend Shuhei (who also took us to see fireflies one nice summer evening), and go to hot springs with our friend Chieko. Chieko took us to one this last friday that was pretty cool. It was on the 9th floor of a building and had a big curved window with a really nice view of Lake Shinji. It was funny though, cause the window wasn't a one-way window or anything like that, so if you stood up and walked by the window anyone walking on the sidewalk by the lake would be able to see you XD. Japanese people aren't so shy about that sort of thing though, so I doubt anyone complains, and it's easy enough to just avoid the window if you're worried about it. But still, I thought it was interesting, since I nothing like that would be allowed in the states. Someone would get sued XP. Well, that's all that's been going on lately. I will definitely be able to post some interesting things once the summer festivals start. I'm very excited to experience my first Japanese summer festival :D.