Thursday 28th May
Tonight okasan and I went for a walk along the river that’s really close to our house, and I was absolutely amazed to see fireflies and lots of them. That’s why we went for the walk. And seeing as I know Felicia will tell the story anyway, yes I came back and said to her “I just saw those insects whose bums light up” because I could not for the life of me think of their name! but it was kinda again one of those I've heard about these in books or movies before but I don’t know having never seen them before I kinda didn’t believe they really existed, seeing is believing.

Friday 29th May
Friday during home class we were working on getting ready for sport festival. Sports day here seems like it is going to be very very different to back in Australia but I will hold out about really writing much about it until the thing its self to avoid confusion.

Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st May
Saturday lunch time we (okasan, Yuka and I) went out for lunch to a restaurant that Yuka had to write a report on for the newspaper. It was a really nice traditional Japanese buffet. After that we headed down to Takayama (translates as Tall Mountain) in Gifu prefecture for the night. In Takayama we went to “matsuri no mori” (festival forest) which was in a giant dome in the middle of the mountain. Literally underground! There were (supposedly – I say supposedly because you see the label the best, the biggest, the most well known on a lot of things here so after a while it starts to loes meaning and is very contradictory to itself.) the largest drums in the world. Japanese largest portable shrine and lots of floats and other stuff used in festivals around Japan. We then wandered the town of Takayama its self. In Takayama there were lots of Sarubobo. Sarubobo is a traditional type of doll which were made by the mother or grandmother during pregnancy and then played with by the child when they were young to help bring the child good health and luck. Back at the hotel on Saturday night we went to the onsen, very nice I must say I think I enjoyed this one a lot more than the “very famous” (very expensive) onsen I went to back in march with my first hosts not anything to do with comfort level of the public bath thing. I just liked the set up here more. There were waterfalls and stuff that you could sit under and it massaged your back. And binoculars around the edge of the bath on the edge of the building from which you could look out at the beautiful scenery ect.
Sunday after another beaufiful buffet meal of both Japanese and western style breakfast foods we headed into the township itself again. This time we visited a few art galleries , an ancient house and a temple as well as many shops! Needless to say I came back with lots more stuff to cover my blazer and many fun memories that go with them. I think that’s one of the greatest things about the blazer is the hunt for new stuff for it is so fun. And I have lots of random things attached to it that just happened and seem really random and are the keys to bringing back into my conscious some great memories. For example I have a straw, its not actually attached yet but at the moment it lives in the pocket. A straw? I have my reasons which I cant be bothered to type right now

Sunday night once we got home I set about attaching all this stuff to my blazer and Yuka found a stack of the pins that she had taken with on her exchange to give away and had left over and gave them all to me. And seemed to clean her room in the process. Lots of Japan rotary badges and random other stuff was given to me that night. And lots of fun.