Nothing much has happened over the weekend. I guess the first cool thing was talking with some of the ol' CC crew, namely Jude, Ben and Paul who happened to be staying at my house over the weekend for the Living History Farms Race. It was great to talk to people back home. There are lots of great people here, but it just ain't the same.
Shortly after getting off the phone with those guys, I went hiking with our friends Monica and Steph. We went up to the waterfall that is in the initial pictures that jennifer has on the website. The change of seasons really makes a difference though. I, being the flatlander that i am, was totally amazed by the mountains as we drove up to the base of the waterfall hike. There is not much for snow yet, but at the higher elevations you can see where the frost line is. The trees are coated with a white frost from the passing clouds. Our waterfalls were not quite to that level but they were pretty cool nonetheless. Pictures will be arriving as soon as we develop the film. I always like roaming about in the woods here. I can't help but feel transported somewhere to Middle Earth (nerd? Hell Yes!) The gnarly tree roots, spectacular scenery and fall weather are just unmistakably linked in my brain with those 4 awesome books by the lord of Fantasy, JRR Tolkien.

Then sunday passed more or less plainly, I did some shopping for christmas presents to send back home. In the evening were the mighty Yebisko Fireworks. They're supposedly the best in the prefecture and some of the best in Japan. Jennifer and i staked out our perch and met up with some japanese people from the Japanese club that Jennifer studies with. It was frickin cold and it only got colder. This made shivering and cuddling necessary, but overall, i have to say that it was worth it. Never before have i seen such awesome fireworks. It is truly "Rocket Science". These dudes do some amazing things with pyrotechnics. THere were greater numbers, bigger sizes, different configurations and longer lasting rounds than i had ever seen before. It was great. Not only were the fireworks great, but the human spectacle was super too. There must have been 20,000 people watching the fireworks and there were consequently about 1Km of fast food stands set up in front of the main viewing area. There were also only 2 staircaises leading away from this staging ground. You can imagine the crowds. Japanese people can function just as well as sardines as humans.