obon continued

Well, trying to type with Callan on my lap is a chore...

We arrived in Tokushima in time to relax a bit before church. The Church just got carpet installed last week and it looks great. Before the carpet their was just tan lanolium and it made sacrament meeting very loud. All the members were just as I remember them: friendly, hard working, and a little tired. Almost all the young single adults that I was aquainted with are now married, one with a child, and sadly none of the people I taught as a missionary are currently attending the branch. Two of them, brother Tsumitomo and Brother Shimizu have apparently lost interest, while a third, Brother Watanabe, moved away, and a fourth,Brother Asamine is currently living in a halfway home for poor individuals.

Melissa and I actually went to visit him after church with Callan. He was poor when I met him five years ago, but I guess things have gotten worse. He was very surprised to see us, and seemed happy for the visit. Brother Nakano from the branch apparently home teaches him regularly and he is doing as well as he can. He told me he had lost 40 kilos and said he was currently looking for work. We only had about twenty minutes to talk, but it was good to see him.

Sunday night we went to the Kunimi familys house to stay. The Kunimi family has been involved in the local dance festival for thirty plus years and said they would give us an inside tour of the whole event. At six pm we went down town where they had blocked off 35 square blocks of the city to make way for the several hundred thousand visitors and dancers that filled the streets.

The dance troupes make their way around the city, followed closely by their musicians who play a collection of drums, chimes, and guitar looking instruments, the name of which I should know, but have forgotten.

The festival started several hundred years ago to celebrate the completion of Tokushima castle and has since grown into the largest dance festival in Japan. We were lucky to be here during the festival and to have so much time off.

Callan was at first a little surprised by the noise, but by the end of the night was really in to it. While we took a break to eat our picnic dinner in a public square outside of city hall, just next to a main parade route, Callan spent the entire time running around in large circles with a japanese fan in his hand saying hello to the people has they ran by. He was given several fans in the process and caught just about everyones eye.

By 8:30 pm the crowds were getting thicker and Callan was getting more tired, so we bagged it and went home. We got home at 9:30pm and were in bed by 10.

The next morning the Kunimis treated us to a real japanese breakfast of Miso soup, rice, little tiny dried fish, pounded fish patties that taste a bit like fishy spam, scrambled eggs, and grapes, and we were on the road again by 8:30 am.

We spent the morning at the castle ruins park by the train station, did some window shopping at a department store, and then met up with some other english teachers from Marugame for lunch at a sandwhich shop in town owned by an american. We payed 950 yen (about 8 bucks) for a foot long sub and another 350 yen (2.90) for some chilli spice fries.

On the way home from Tokushima we stopped in Takamatsu, my second area as a missionary to see if there was anyone at the Church. We met brother Tabakodani who is in charge of the building, and he gave us a tour. The downstairs had been remodeled because it had flooded really bad last year. Brother Tabakodani told us that an american family had just moved out of the branch and left all their childrens toys and some food storage and if that if we wanted some we could have it. We were greatful to take with us a five gallon bucket of white wheat (now all we need to do is find a grinder and we will have whole wheat flour, which is impossible to find at a regular grocery store) some beans, and a four wheeled kids bike for Callan.

Now we are home and we are done playing for a while until our first paycheck in september.

Oh yeah, also, we just got the internet figured out at our house and it should be all ready to go in about two weeks. We have IP phone service with calls to America only costing about 2 cents a minute. We will keep everyone up on the details as we get more aquainted with how it all works.

mata ne