I Didn't Waste A Day
With the month of August off, I feel like I've let a few good days go to waste just sitting in front of the TV. So it felt good to get off my ass and go out and do some stuff on Sunday.

This is my last week before moving up to Gifu, so it was the last Sunday to go to the church I've been attending. I drove into Ajimu and met the friend I've been car-pooling with. She hadn't seen me in a few weeks, and commented that with the new beard I "look just like a bear."

After Church I headed down to Beppu to catch one last cup of coffee with a good friend (who shall remain nameless).

And then Sunday night in Usa, where a farewell dinner/fireworks celebration was held in my honor.

I mentioned last month how I hate all this good-bye stuff. The problem with sticking around an extra month is I'm finding I'm having to go through it twice. I already had a good-bye party with this group in Usa (combined with Eoin and Jane), but now that I'm leaving for real, we had another good-bye party last night.

After dinner at Gusto (a local family restaurant) we went out onto a dam(or concrete barrier) in Usa river to let off some fireworks. Sneaking on to the dam in the night to let off fireworks had an exciting semi-illegal feel to it, but it was probably all perfectly legit.

I'm not sure what the finer points of the law are in Japan (or to be honest, even in Michigan) but I do get the general impression fireworks are a lot less regulated out here than they are at home. After a trip to the department store, a couple of Japanese friends showed up with two huge bags of fireworks. Josh, Steph, and I were the only foreigners present as we fired off all sorts of fireworks.

Anytime you get a lot of people and a lot of fireworks together, you're kind of asking for trouble. I had a few nervous laughs as I dodged a few fireworks that went off in my direction. The safety and good sense of the whole venture seemed a little bit questionable to me, but then again I'm always a bit of a worrier. However, I wasn't alone this time in my concern, as Steph and Josh also made several comments.

After the fireworks, we did some karaoke, much to the chagrin of Josh, who was eager to get home and get to bed, but he was a good sport about putting up with it (I was his ride home). All my days should be this much fun.