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A Long Weekend of Fun.
Today (Monday) was “Bunka no hi” (“Culture Day”) in Japan, so there was no school. In addition to the day off from school, it was a day off from Brass Band for me, because I’m not expected to come to the late marching practices (the Brass Band has been practicing 5-10p.m. most of the last two weeks, by the way). Since I don’t go to clubs on weekends anymore, I had a 3-day weekend, without much planned. I decided to call Hiroya to see if he was free, and it turned out that he was. He said I could come over to his house on Sunday morning, so I did.
Basically, we played games together at Hiroya’s house all day. On the Xbox360, we played Halo 3 and Ghost Recon 2 (a ‘first-person shooter’ set, I believe, in Mexico). While we were playing, I discovered that there was a “forge” mode in Halo 3, allowing players to add objects at will into the levels, and found it a lot of fun. Other than video games, we also played chess, and Mrs. Ishida and Hiroya’s sister joined in for some card games. The card games, by the way, were “daifugou” (“very wealthy person”, referring to the winner of the game), and a game that reminded me of cheat (or “BS”, as it’s sometimes called).
When I was about to leave on Sunday, I was asked what I had planned for the next day. Since I didn’t have anything specific in mind, I said so, and was soon invited over for another day with the Ishidas.
As planned, I made the 10-minute walk to the Ishidas’ house again this morning. When I arrived, I found out that Hiroya and I would be going to see a movie in the afternoon, and had to entertain ourselves until then. Therefore, we went to see the “Ogori Bunkasai”, a “cultural festival” on “Culture Day” held only a few minutes away by bicycle, in the morning. At the festival, there were lots of tents set up selling food and used items (not unlike a festival in the United States), as well as a main stage, although we didn’t get to see a show; I think Hiroya and I arrived just a few minutes after the Taiko finished. I got to try zenzai, a red bean soup with mochi (“rice cake”, according to my dictionary) inside, for the first time, and liked it. Another attraction was Ogori’s library, which just opened today, and we went in for a little while since it was so close to where the “Ogori Bunkasai” was taking place.
We got back to Hiroya’s house in the early afternoon, and soon got ready to go see to go to the movies. Mrs. Ishida was the one who drove us the half-hour to the “Saty” (pronounced “saatii” in Japanese) mall in Hofu, where the movie theater was. Apparently, the movie theater in Hofu is the only one around.
The movie Hiroya and I (Mrs. Ishida drove back home) went to see was “Eagle Eye” (see www.eagleeyemovie.com for details), a movie in which people get messages (through phone calls, etc.) telling them what to do to accomplish a goal unknown to them. The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles. I liked the movie a lot, and I think Hiroya did too. I found it interesting when the setting of the movie turned to a Japanese tour bus (because of the Japanese seen and spoken), and I think a lot of the audience chuckled at hearing their native language.
After we saw the movie, we had to take the train back to Shin-Yamaguchi from Hofu Station (conveniently located right across from the mall). There weren’t very many people on the train during our relatively short ride, but I noticed that a lot of them were wearing school uniforms, meaning that Kojo High School isn’t the only school to make students go to school and extracurricular activities on national holidays. From Shin-Yamaguchi Station, it was only a short walk to the Nomuras’, and Hiroya walked back home alone from there.
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