Pictures of Shoko

Just a few weeks ago I apologized one this blog for not having any pictures of Shoko with her eyes open. Then today I got more pictures from Shoko in the mail.

The first 5 are of me and Shoko at her Aunt and Uncles place. [Actually since Blogger loaded the new pictures from the top down, they've become the bottom 5 now]. Shoko still has her eyes closed in a couple of them. I can't really figure out why she has such bad luck with cameras because if you meet her in person she really does have very nice eyes. I think maybe she must just blink a lot.

This was in early May, about a week before I returned to Grand Rapids. In contrast to Shoko's mother, I was a big hit at this house. They were really excited to have me. The uncle said that they had never had a foreigner over for dinner before, so it was a big deal. The daughter was studying the protestant reformation at school, so they were really excited to have an actual real live protestant in the house who she could talk to. I did my best to explain the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, and generally enjoyed playing the expert.

The bottom 4 [or I guess they're the top 4 now] are pictures Shoko just took last week and mailed out to me so I wouldn't complain about how I never had any pictures of her. Notice the nice eyes.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
Oita's Mt. Hachimen is also home to the popular music festival, Concert on the Rock. This annual charity event sees over 30 international acts performing over a June weekend for the pleasure of Japan's music lovers. The natural surroundings make it one of the most picturesque rock festivals in the world. Hmmm....I heavily suspect the Concert on the Rock folks had a hand in writing this very generous Wikipedia entry. Nevertheless I do have found memories of my own experiences at this concert.

Link of the Day
Regular Readers of this blog have probably noted I usually link to Chris or Justin when they describe some aspect of Ajimu or Oita life that I either never got around to or didn't describe very well myself.
Chris has a good entry summarizing the "Sex Museum" in Beppu (just one town over from Ajimu). I spent a very interesting afternoon here myself a few years ago.
Also both Chris and Justin wrote about the local Jamaica festival. Read Chris here or Justin here.

I wrote about this festival at this time last year ( seems so long ago now), but they've got pictures on their blog which help give it more of a flavor.