Best Weekend Yet

The Tanabata Festival on Saturday was amazing. Keio helped me out by setting me up with a student to show me around the festival. Her name was Michiko, and it was really nice to hang out with her and her friends. They were all really nice and most of them, including Michiko, spoke great English. It was a nice change of pace to hang out with people my age who also spoke English.

It was also pretty bizarre being able to drink on Keio's campus. I can't help but wonder what UCLA would be like if they openly served not only beer, but cocktails, at a festival on campus. One can only dream....

Some things I did:
-Watched a Keio vs. Waseda flamenco dancing competition. Waseda University won.
-Ate great food.
-Had a Gin and Tonic that was too much tonic and not enough gin...
-Watched some great firewords from the opposite side of the mini LAKE that Keio has.

My host family let me stay out to midnight on Saturday, which was really nice considering my curfew is usually 10:00.....

I'll have pictures later on.


Anyway, today (Sunday), my host family had a little house party with some family friends. This mostly consisted of all the kids running around the house playing while I sat with the parents, ate and drank. I had some kind of Japanese sparkling wine which apparently is the Don Perignon of Japan...so that was awesome. In fact, all the adults at the table seemed intent upon the following things:
-Asking if I had a girlfriend or like Japanese girls.
-Trying to get my drunk. No seriously. Every time my cup was empty, it seemed there was some new kind of beer, wine, or fruit cocktail drink for me to try. I must say I enjoyed myself.
-Listening to 80's American music. I'm talking A-Ha, Madonna, Phil Collins...the CD was actually called "The 80's".

The food was impeccable as always. My host mother specializes in gyoza, so we ate that, among other things. I asked her to teach me her recipe, so pretty soon I'll hopefully be learning from her and can cook it for you all back at home.

I still can't get over how kind everyone is out here. I've felt so welcome these first two weeks...and I truly appreciate it.

And finally...the icing on the cake for the whole weekend. The greatest news I've ever heard. The reason I'm beaming everywhere I go....

MY SISTER MELISSA AND HER BOYFRIEND, BRIAN, ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!

This morning I got a chance to skype with my family, and the following dialogue occurred:
Melissa: Hey Steven, we need your help with some translation.
Steven: Ok cool...what is it.
Melissa: Do you know what "kekkonshiki" means?
Steven: Uh....yeah that means wedding.
Melissa: Well we're going to be having one!
Steven: Wait...huh...Oh my gosh! No way! HOLY CRAP!!!!
Melissa: ::laughing:: I told Lindsay this morning that you were going to say "holy crap"!

Words cannot express how overjoyed I am by this news. Melis and Brian, if you guys are reading this...CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN! I cannot wait to hear more details about everything. I'm glad that I actually knew what "kekkonshiki" is...that was in my last lesson for Japanese 6 and it would have totally ruined the moment if I had no idea what it was.

On that very very happy note, I'm going to sleep. It is 8:30 over here, but after two days in a row of some decent afternoon drinking, I'm spent. Good night! I miss you all.