Meredith, Me, Paul and Matt

So this week I had parties, lots of parties. I also had lots of work, but burning the candle at both ends is something I've got quite used to recently! The photo above is from a party at the Fukushima-City orientation. Like most conferences here it was quite over the top, with a lot more ceremony than content! Things get a bit boring once you've sat through the third speaker of the ceremony that opens the opening ceremony! But the best thing about it was getting to know everyone in the prefecture better. Although everyone is quite spread about there is quite a good network of people and I'm never short of people to spend weekends with. This is great considering most of the people in cities think that Minamiaizu is miles away from any civilisation! I'm quite smug as I know that I can get to any city I want to by 3pm on a Friday (I have the afternoon off) and can stay with lots of different people. And although I haven't had much of a chance to go out hiking, this is the view from my office windows...

So there you are, I'm quite the regionalist. In fact everyone in Aizu (the western area of Fukushima) is quite proud. This is a really important area historically. The Aizu-clan was the last rebel stronghold at the end of the Boshin war (apparently) and there are many great Samurai stories. On September 22nd Aizuwakamatsu has its annual festival where all the men dress up as Samurai and ride horses...I can't wait!

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I went with everyone to the language course in Aizuwakamatsu and found out that my homestay family was back in Shimogo! Talk about luck. The family I stayed with (the Abe's) live down the road from me and are really interesting. In fact I'd already heard of them through my friend Mike, he'd mentioned that he was friends with some women in Shimogo whom he called his "Golden Girls". Well I quickly realised that the Abe sisters and their friend Keiko were in fact the very same girls. Miwako came to pick me up and we very quickly got in an interesting chat about art. She's quite a well known oil painter and has done several big shows in Tokyo. She's also a spiritual healer, 45 and unmarried which is very unusual in Japan. They're generally a very interesting family, her mother, now 75 was born in the house and they farm rice and vegetables in a small holding at the back of the house. I've never eaten so well! So I will be regularly eating there I think and may take up some pottery with them, or even learn how to do the lacquerware that Keiko's dad makes. Japan's a great place for this as even the cheapest things are hand made and really nice. Oh, and Miwako's brother in law is a carpenter who is an expert in building traditional Japanese houses. I went to his work and saw how beautiful and just how much of a fire hazard these houses really are!

My Japanese course went really well, it was very intensive but really spurred me on and increased my confidence. I really noticed the difference today when I went to work. The teacher I had lives in Minamiaizu so I may get in touch with her for some private lessons. The lessons were so hard, especially because it was 35 degrees (as it is every day) and really humid!

I'd better go and do my daily insect hunt. If I'm not careful I end up with enormous things with tenticals attached to my bedside lamp so it's best to find them before they find me! I really can't imagine this place under two metres of snow in December! It seems like the heat, insects and noisy cicades (grasshopper like insects that sound like a hundred chainsaws in the trees) all come hand in hand with this place. We will see!