Happy Independence Day!

Thanks for all the comments on the last post...it was interesting to read what everyone's REALLY thinking about. Also, most of get home the 31ST OF JULY.

So I'm quite behind. I still have yet to blog about a few days of walking/collecting station stamps (current count is at 36, which is kinda impressive because that means we walked to that many stations...however, there are 77 to be had...) I also went to Nikko for a day (known for monkeys and waterfalls and temples and things...it was super nice and pretty and HUMID, probably due to all the thick forests around) and celebrated July 4th this weekend (we had good food and went to a park to set off small fireworks). I'm trying to catch up with a lot of things that I've yet to do in Japan, now that my days are quite numbered. It's hot though! Rainy season is over so now we welcome the outright heat and humidity. Whoo and boy it's hot. I forgot how hard it is to sleep when you're sticky and the hotness just won't go away. Walking around with a fan and sweat-wiping towel is definitely smart. I'll be trying to climb Mt. Fuji with UVA folks this weekend, and visiting my old host family soon too...and traveling to Osaka my last weekend. Apparently the people there are amazingly open and friendly, much different from Tokyo-ans, so I want to meet them! Class ends around the 22nd, and we have some finals and then I'm home-free!