Well I ended up getting about...maybe 3 hours of broken sleep last night.  Really hard, uncomfortable beds, and I know I am not the only one not sleeping well. Hopefully I'll be able to spend a few nights at Aya's house next week, I'll have to wait and see. 

So Aki called me when she woke up this morning and we decided to meet at 1pm.  I met up wit Phillip (sp?) in the lounge and we talked for a bit.  He and David (both are from France) decided to go check out the Hachiouji festival today so I decided to go with them until it was time to meet Aki.  It took just over an hour to get to Hachiouji by train and we spent another hour or so wandering around the festival.  Most of the city was done up for the festival with probably close to 100 booths set up along the sidewalks with games, and different kinds of foods and sweets (wood steamed baked potato, chocolate dipped bananas, cotton candy, Tako Yaki - octopus balls, yaki soba - fried noodles and so much more!!)  There were also floats for each section of the city.  I got some pictures of some of them.  There was traditional Japanese dancing in the streets (two lines of dancers that stretched more than 2 blocks in each direction!!) and Taiko drum performances by adults and kids alike.

So much to see and 3 days to see it in...but I missed the first day while in transit.  I get to back tomorrow with the Kasai Family.

I took the train to Hino for 1pm and Aki met me at the station.  We went back to her place and chatted with her parents for a while.  Then we all decided that today would be a good day to go visit the old high school.  So Aki's dad drove us back to Hachiouji (avoiding the festival) and went to sleep in the car while Aki and I went around to surprise everyone.  After we signed in at the front desk ( and were greeted really warmly by the secretary) we went upstairs to the teachers room.  Ishida sensei was in the room and Aki stuck her head in and told him to come to the door beacuse there was a special guest to see him (me!).  The look on his face when he saw me made me feel really good.  So we talked for a few minutes then he went across the hall to get another teacher that was there 6 years ago when I was a student there....and we talked for a few more minutes.  Then we started talking about different teachers and Harada Sensei came up. I really really like Harada Sensei. He was definately one of my favourite teachers at Junshin High school.  Turns out he's now the Vice Principle!!!  So Ishida Sensei called him on the phone and told him to come down to our floor because there was a special guest here he had to meet.   We met him in the stair well as he was coming down the stairs and I waved at him and he just stopped for a second and his whole face lit up and he practically ran down the stairs to greet me!!!  He shook my hand real firm with a huge smile on his face and we ended up going into one of the confrence rooms for iced tea and sweets while we talked for about 30 minutes.  We were joined by one of the nuns (also really nice) and then the secretary joined us and brought these little ice treats that were made to look like pineapple pieces. (yes mom, I actually liked them!! I had 3 :) )  That's when Aki mentioned that her dad was still in the car waiting for us!  LOL  The teachers freaked! LOL It was rather hilarious!  Turns out he was sleeping, and one of them went out to get him and bring him inside then ice airconditioned building to wait while Aki and I went to the gym to see Suzuki Sensei.  (the high today was 35C...tomorrow is going to be hotter and it is REALLY REALLY HUMID!!!)  

After that Aki and I went back to the festival for a bit and then went to Book Off (cheap books, movies and music..all second hand stuff) and I got two movies. (one is called Shinobi and I can't remember the name of the other one.)  After that we went back to Aki's place and her mom made Okonomiyaki (think pancakes but with vegetables and stuff ...not really pancakes but that's what they kinda look like). I had 2 and a half...practically the only thing I had to eat today besides drinking tones of water...just to hot to be hungry.  I left Aki's place and caught a 9pm train back to Shinjuku and then transfered to another train to get back to Ikebukuro,,,, I was falling asleep before and after dinner...barely stayed awake on the train...and now that I'm back at the hotel, I'm wired again. go figure! lol

I figure I'll go upstairs and chat with Phillipe for a while (he's in the same room as me for sleeping) and then go to bed around midnight (iun about 45 minutes).  It was an amazingly fun day and tomorrow promises to be about as good because I get to see my host family and go back to the festival for the final day.

off I go.  Have a good day eveyone!