Saturday in the Park

I absolutely love that i have yet to see the end of 'park parties.' Seriously, in so many ways JET (at least the hanging out with other JETs part) is alot like college. So this weekend when the JET social organizers suggested a trip to the castle in Hikone and a BBQ in a park how could i resist! The castle was a little disappointing, largely because it was hot and stuffy and empty and i couldn't read any of the signs (turns out my katakana and hiragana skills are no help to me in museums), but it was really pretty and old, as you can see. Someone, who may or may not actually know what they're talking about said its significant for being the oldest wooden castle. Or something like that.

Finally 11:30 rolled around and it was time to get the party started. We hopped a train, filled up on food stuffs and liquid products and hit the park in Nagahama, right on Lake Biwa. I was sad i hadn't even thought to bring my suit. The afternoon was pretty chill, eating hotdogs and sitting and having some beers or Chu-hi under the pavilion. It was chance to get to know people, especially the Group B arrivals who came to Tokyo a really great to have yet anotherweek after we did (including Kristin Levanovich). I had lots of fun with them, and wound up heading down to Otsu (about 40 minutes past my town) for dinner and a bit of bar time. Then it was back home for me, enjoying my first late night bike ride (which was fabulous even if i couldn't figure out how to turn on my bike light) and heading to bed to prepare for Sunday's school cleaning.

Pic 1: Brian, Andrea and Kristin in the park
Pic 2: Rachel and Paul enjoying their conbeni snacks
Pic 3: Zack, Brian, Mike and Justin on the train to Otsu. They really hated us gai-jin on that train ride.