too much to write about...!

Ouf! The parade of guests is over - over! Two and a half months - poof... gone and finit. These weeks full of visitors feel a bit like the whole seven months that we've been here - they've gone by quickly, but so much has happened, so much has been done that in a way the time seems stretched and compressed at the same time. Hmmm... does this only make sense in my head? Errrr, not sure. I know this next week will be poof gone and finit in no time too; we only have a week left here, which is crazy crazy crazy.

I have a few other things on the crazy list: in Osaka this weekend we saw hundreds of people waiting hours and hours and hours in line (actually they were waiting in TWO lines) for Krispy Kreme donuts. There were numerous security guys doing a whole bunch of different things: directing people from one line to the next, managing the neatness and orderliness of the line, holding signs that told the dozens of donut-crazed citizens where to stand, the wait time (an hour an a half on Saturday morning; according to Steve it was much longer on Friday), the beginning and end of each line and more. It was insanity. I mean, I know that Krispy Kreme donuts are good - but are they worth hours and hours in a line-up? Not so sure on that one. Crazy list item number two: Steve and I went for a bike ride in Komazawa Park yesterday and saw the owners of a stocky little pug changing its diapers and wiping its bum... for real. It was a bit much. And that's all that I have to say about that.

SO! The weekend in Osaka was amazing! It was Golden Week, so it was insanely busy and bustling with people. Golden Week is one of the longest holiday periods of the year for the Japanese, and is made up of three or four (maybe more) holidays: Showa Day (the former Emperor Showa's birthday), Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day and Children's Day. SO! The streets were full and busy, as were the shops and hotels - the picture speaks for itself.


It was great to see some of Steve's last games too. They won on Saturday, but didn't fare so well on Sunday :(, and the long and short of it is that they lost in the quarter-finals on Monday afternoon, and are finished! After seven months of some of the longest volleyball practices ever experienced by a certain Canadian, they are done and done! The team stayed in Osaka on Monday night and partied - Japanese style - before taking the bullet home on Tuesday afternoon. Japanese style? What is? Basically, the Japanese way of partying (I speak only from experience - mine and Steve's) is that any party that involves drinking means drinking... and drinking fast. It's almost as if there's a small window of opportunity (to get wasted), and a start and finish time - participants are expected to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible before the buzzer goes and it's time for bed (perhaps only because capacity has been reached). So despite a language barrier (break it with beer!) Steve stayed, partied and came home on Tuesday.



There's more (and there are more pics), but I'm tired. So... until next time! :)