Well, I was quite surprised to see Raye tonight, but learned quickly not to bring up her loss of an opportunity to see Arashi. They ran out of tickets. Instead, we saw the Fujihara and Kojima families along with their American friend, Denise. She’s an ESL teacher from Nebraska who has been visiting Sapporo every summer for the last fifteen years. I must say, I’m quite jealous!
The Fujihara‘s brought sushi and the Kojima‘s and I prepared bread and cold ramen. It was a tasty meal, and we rounded out the evening with a little singing. Mr. Kojima loves to play his ukulele.
Today is Tanabata, one of my favorite festivals, although it’s essentially astrological worship. It tends to be more of a children’s event, which takes the spiritual edge off, but nonetheless, I’ll see if I can get some photos of the streamers. It’s supposed to rain while Raye, Denise, the Clarks, and I tour the town and meet Ohno-sensei for the first time. Ohno-sensei and Tim are working on building a wedding chapel as an outreach opportunity on one of the nearby hills.
