My Weekend
Mike (the other JET in Ajimu) was turning 26 this week, so he and his friends celebrated by going out to Himeshima Island.

Himeshima Island is a small island off the coast the North East tip of Oita prefecture. Famous, apparently, for nothing. Every person I've ever asked about this Island always tells me there is nothing out there.

Which in my mind was part of the appeal for going out. Seeing this nothingness that everyone is talking about. Besides, Islands are cool.

But in the end I didn't end up going. Same old story as always, I just didn't get my act together in time. By the time I called up Mike, he and his friends were already on the Island. I asked if anyone was running late as well, and Mike directed me to Chris and David in Usa and Bungo Takeda. I met up with them, but we only succeeded in delaying eachother. You know how it is. Once you start getting a small group together, it is almost impossible to get everyone moving. Someone always is holding the others up. (Actually in this case it might have been me again, but let's not quibble over details).

By the time we were all ready to go, it was so late in the day that I figured it wasn't worth it. I told the other two to just go ahead without me, and I ended up spending my Saturday night at a pool table tournament in Tropicocos instead.

Sunday was a church picnic to celebrate Pentecost. The Pastor started out by saying thanks to God for giving us such nice weather for the picnic. 10 minutes later it was raining. Fortunately there was a pavilion we could take cover under, but it did kind of ruin the picnic.

At some points the rain was really coming down pretty heavily. During this period, one of the little kids decided he had to go to the bathroom. The toilets were at the other end of the park, but the pastor ran out to get his car, and then drove up to the pavilion. The mother and kid hopped into the car and they drove to the toilets.

They came back about 15 minutes later. The kid was hiding behind his mother, but his mother sternly said, "Go on, tell everyone you're sorry. Tell everyone you're sorry. Say to everyone, 'When I said I had to go to the bathroom, I was lying.'" The kid stayed huddled behind his mother's dress, and when the shame of the public apology became too much, he burst into tears and she relented.

Since the mother seemed a bit upset about it, I tried not to laugh, but I thought it was pretty funny. The kid in question is a bit of a handful, so I can easily imagine he would say he had to go to the bathroom just because he wanted the attention of being taken there. Still, such an odd thing to lie about. And I thought it was funny that the mother was so upset about it.

Whatever, I guess you probably had to be there.