Weekend

This weekend was pretty good...I got outdoors a lot. Saturday I went for a little hike up to some old castle ruins where there is a little shrine now. It was bloody hot but nice and quiet...I had heard that the trail will take you all the way along the ridgeline to Urasa if you want to, but after I got up the first part of the trail and tried to pass the shrine, the trail was pretty much destroyed from earthquake damage. There were fallen trees and little landslides that kept me from going even 5 minutes down trail. That night I went to Muikamachi for a jambalayah party at Kate Red's place with Nate, Kathryn, other Kate, and a few other people. Went out to a bar called Lame O and then I went back home to meet up with my friend Mai and her friends and some old rich guys who were buying them lots of wine at a place called Shuan. Mai is close to Shuan's mama, who was drunk enough to start grabbing my head and shaking it a lot.

Sunday I woke up early and drove 3 hours to Hakuba in the middle of Nagano prefecture for some white-water rafting with Kate D., Katie, Sonja, and Jess...it was good weather and we were up for it, but because rainy season hasn't hit here, the water was so low that it cut off a good portion of the river from rafting, and it wasn't as fast and furious as it should have been...but a good time none-the-less. It was just nice to be outside and I like that part of the country. The mountains there are huge. That's where most of the skiing events were held in the olympics and we started out in the little olympic village there.

Today will be wretchedly busy as I have 6 classes over two schools including a little elementary tucked way up in the mountains with 12 students. But then I'm back to get my AC installed!