Mary Newton: Meg's birthday weekend, taiko, and a whole lot of fun!

Somehow a week has slipped by without me writing, but I will catch you up on all the crazy adventures I have had since then!

First and foremost, a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Meg!! We have been through SO much these past 10 months and I seriously don't know what I would do without you (go crazy?). I hope you had as much fun as I did this past weekend! :)

That said, I will tell you what we did this weekend because it led us to yet another potential weekly experience.

On Saturday, Meg and I went to a taiko workshop at Seibold University in Nagayo (about 45 minutes from Omura on the slow train). Now, if you know me, you know that it is one of my dreams to play the drums, so I was really excited that I would finally get a chance to learn a little! We got there and had an AMAZING time. We saw and got to try three different types of Taiko -- standing up straight, standing on a slant, and sitting (used for festivals on floats when there is little room -- great for the abs!) on the big drums (wadaiko) -- and we got to play two other sized drums, too. There's something about the drums that excites me. Melodie, the coordinator for this, wrote this in an email to me:

"By the way, you should have seen your face when Kazuo-sensei started playing sitting style! Your eyes lit up like a Christmas tree!! I wish I'd had my camera..."

haha! :) Check out the pics!

The playing field.

Our sensei for the afternoon!

Playing the medium sized drums (I'm on the left)

So happy!

Meg and I enjoyed this so much that on Monday, I finally sat down and did some research. Took me all of 2 minutes to find the Omura taiko group. I really should have done this MONTHS ago, but better late than never, right? They had a 2 1/2 hour practice Monday night and we went to "watch" but ended up staying the whole time because we were THAT impressed and hooked. This group, made mostly out of young kids (one of them is my student!) is AMAZING!! After class we introduced ourselves and ended up being offered a ride to the practice on Sunday nights. How are Meg and I filled with so much luck? I can't wait until Sunday night!! Taiko class! A dream come true -- playing the drums!!! :D

Sunday was Meg's birthday and we had a full day of fun planned out! Zara picked up some delicious bentos from Agri (a restaurant here that we like) and we surprised Meg and took her up to the waterfall for a real picnic! It was still a bit too cold to jump in (although that didn't stop another ALT that we ran into while we were there), but we had a nice time enjoying the beautiful weather, sun, and each other's company.

Miss Ana drove and Zara and I were being silly in the back seat -- we switched shades (shortly before mine broke...).

Made it to the waterfall...but now we have to climb down the hill for the next 5 minutes. haha.

Birthday girl!!! <3 And the banana bread (cake?) I made for the occasion! :D

Z and Shawna looking sekushii. See Lana in the background? Yes, she jumped in. She said it wasn't as cold as it was back in March. ...

There's a purpose for this picture...I just wasn't at the right angle -- but they look silly. =)

This was the purpose -- to look like you are drinking the waterfall. "Ana, you're good. Mary...do something else..." "fine fine...CHOP" [Which, all of a sudden reminded me of something. Lauren, this is for you.... "Jeff, chop chop!" hahahahahaha]

Next we went up to ShuShu on the mountain to indulge in some special ice cream. Zara got some red bean and green tea ice cream (she said she didn't think it was very good) and the other two ladies got some MINT ice cream (as in real mint flavored vanilla ice cream -- very refreshing).

I, on the other hand, got...

TOMATO ice cream! It was tomato-y and very good. Goodness...I have WAY too many pictures of me with ice cream...

Following ShuShu, we rushed off to KARAOKE! Finally, we got to have some Sun Spa (aka CHEAP and a free drink bar) karaoke fun. Plus, we got a HUGE room all to ourselves (for less than 5 bucks each for 4 hours!!!).

Check out the size of this room!!

AND a disco ball, oh my!!

Craziness ensues (for the next three hours)...

uh hum...

We took some birthday purikura (of course) and went to Meg's and my favorite izakaya that's up the road from our house. I got this delicious lettuce sushi roll -- wow! :D

What a weekend -- what great friends! :)

On Tuesday we had our brutal but very rewarding 2 hour dance class -- why don't they air condition the dance rooms? We were soaked after both of them (I'm sure you needed to know that, too). Good times :)