August
For all of August, I didn't actually have to go to work. It was nice to have plenty of time to get
settled in and see old friends and stuff. So that's what I did!
On August first, Jujin took me to see the PL fireworks display in Osaka. Unfortunately the one
picture I have of the fireworks doesn't begin to do justice to them. It was honestly the most
impressive fireworks display I have ever seen.
Another day, Wakana came to visit me, and we went to my favorite restaurant in Umeda. Then we
met up with Sho and Yosuke, and hung out at Hep Five for a while.
That night Yosuke and Sho came to my apartment. At the time, the only posters up were a couple
left by my predecessor: one JR train ad, and the pictured one of the Nara Daibutsu.
Another time I went back to Hirakata and met up with Sho, Yosuke, and Adam. Of course we did
karaoke at our old favorite Janbo. And I finally took a picture of the Walla Walla sign.
Sho, Yosuke, and Kazu all left for the states at the beginning of August, to study abroad, so
before they went we had a going-away party at Sho's apartment. He introduced us to his adorable
hyper hamster, Chuchu, who loved to climb not in but BEHIND her hamster wheel. I made curry and
takoyaki for dinner. My next door neighbor and fellow JET Oli also came to the party.
I've also met some other Nara JETs. I went to a nearby bar with Oli, Nathan, and Perry (who
just finished JET and went home). Shortly afterwards we went to karaoke with some other JETs:
the other Laura who lives downstairs, Sam, and Lucas, as well Hiroe, a friend of theirs.
Surprisingly, the next people I hung out with were my relatives! They'd been vacationing in Kyoto,
so I took my cousins and aunt and uncle to Nara to look at the temples and deer. You know, the
usual Nara stuff. We also met up with Kenta and Wakana.
The next day, I met up with Jamie and Megan and their friend Kouichi in Kyoto. We found the same
giraffe adn panda robots that Sarah and I rode over a year ago! In the evening we did karaoke
and were joined again by my family, who also sang a bit!
The next weekend was spent fangirling over Johnny's with Jamie and Alyson, and her friends Eri
and Asuka, but unfortunately I was having too much fun to remember to take many pictures.
Go back to picture index.
