I forgot to mention, check out the outfits the men are wearing. They wear traditional Japanese customs, which often consist of a short robe and some white thong underwear, which leaves their asses hanging out for all to see. I discreetly took a picture of one them.

Sorry I haven't written much in awhile, but I've been busy. I had a good weekend. I went out to eat with some friends on Friday night, and got to hear my friend Jumpei's theory that wherever President Bush goes there is also a secret service guard carrying a button which enables him to launch a nuclear bomb at a moments notice. He insisted that this button was with the President at all times, that when he goes swimming, an agent swims behind him holding onto the button, when he goes jogging an agent runs behind him carrying the button, etc. We had a good laugh over that theory. Then on Saturday, I went with Ana to see the Da Vinci Code. It was really good, I really enjoyed the movie. It got poor ratings from the critics, but having read the book I really enjoyed seeing it on screen. Then we had coffee at Starbucks (I am addicted to the banana mocha frappucino)and hung out for awhile. Then on Sunday I went to a festival in Asakusa called the Sanja Matsuri. It's a really big festival, people march through the streets carrying these big portable shrines called,Omikoshi ,which are supposed to carry the spirits of different gods. When they carry the Omikoshi through the streets they believe they're spreading the divine spirit of the gods throughout Asakusa. There were LOTS of people there and many different food stands, etc. It was really fun. My friend, Yusuke, lives in Asakusa, so he took us around the festival and tracked down some of the Omikoshi so we could see them. I took some pictures, I'll post them on here. So that was my weekend, during the week I've pretty much been busy with school. This semester has been a lot busier than last semester. I've already had 5 papers due, done a presentation, taken 3 tests (in Japanese)and probably taken over 15 quizzes, the majority of which were in Japanese. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Okay, the first two pictures are of Maja, Ana and I on the day that I made ravioli, then come the wedding pics.

Here are some pictures from the wedding:

So here's my biggest news of the week: Minako had her babies yesterday! They were a bit premature, so they're small but they're also healthy. They'll be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and then they'll be at the house with me. :-) Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful, I had a lot of schoolwork, so the week has seemed very long. But it's over now. This weekend I'm going to a Japanese wedding, which should be interesting. Some people from my church are getting married, so at least it will be actual christians getting married in a christian wedding. Usually christian weddings here are fake, done for Japanese people who have no christian beliefs and often performed by westerners only pretending to be priests. I guess they just want to wear the pretty white western dress. So that is what's up with me, nothing too exciting. Happy Mother's Day to any mothers reading this!