10pm
Maureen's 21st birthday!
Got up around 7:30, decorated a little with Jeri and biked to the 7-11 on bikes with Jeri and Laurel to get birthday surprises for Moe (like flan and funoodles and whatnot). had a mini party at the house and hung out for little while. We discovered that when you spun the funoodles around you could make some beautiful music and Moe accidentally whacked the flowers the church gave her with the funnoodle (video)
Ito-sensei came by around 11:45 and walked us to a nearby hotel to meet the nice owner where we went into a slightly scary onsen with 2 splashy kids, one of which fell face-first into the water and lurched up in shock for a few minutes which freaked us all out. Afterward the owner gave us colorful yukata (summer kimonos) - which we happily put on, but immediately afterward we were heavily encouraged to walk around the town wearing them with "geta" (those uncomfortable traditional wooden shoes). Not wanting to be rude, we obliged. The wooden shoes became difficult and painful for everyone to clop around in after a block or 2, though we did get some cool pictures around town while in our misery. We gimped back to the hotel and sat around resting our feet a little, getting a bit grumpy from the pain. Maureen attempted to play one of the traditional instruments there which made for a nice picture ;)
When we finally arrived back home we all showered; I went last and while I showered they went to the conbini (conveneince store) and the sweet shop and brought back salad and meat fixin's and yummy desserts (cheesecake and choco cake) which cheered everyone up quite a bit. After dinner we took a short bike ride around town, then had a meeting and worked on lesson plans.
Around 9 Ito-sensei called; he was out front of the house with a cake for Moe :) and a card which he and his wife signed, so cool and nice of them! We ate cake.... oishii!
Prayed... and went to bed.
