Don't even ask how much money I spent today! I feel like a crazy person but I just bought a piano. I figure that will help me while away the winter months in style. It takes up most of the living room which was small to begin with but I love it. I don't know what I'll do with it when I come home but it's actually quite nice. We all have such tiny little cars here so getting it home was a bit of a challenge. Thanks Tom H and Tom U! You carry things with the best of them! I don’t have much music to play so I have been going over every page of the Billy Holiday song book.
Well what happened this week? Not a whole lot really. I had a day off on Thursday because it was National Culture Day. When are these people not having a holiday? I went to Matsumoto and walked around enjoying the somewhat overcast day. The leaves have changed colour so beautifully here that even a grey day looks incredible. I took a better picture of the temple I hung out in the other night after that party. Most of the events were happening on Frog street. There are large frog statues all along the river and lots of venders are selling frog stuff. I don’t know why this came into being but it’s nice and quirky. There was also a kimono festival and art show going on but I never got to it. I just wanted to watch the street performers and browse through the stores I can never get to during the week. I also went to the foreign foods store in town and restocked and some extremely over priced essential items.
Last night I went to a party I found out about at the last minute. It was pretty weird and I didn’t get home until 4 AM. As a result I didn’t get out of bed until 2 this afternoon which is something I haven’t done since high school. There was a bunch of potentially homeless Japanese people there. One guy was using his cell phone to take pictures of us all in extreme close up without asking. It was weird. We kept telling him that was rude and he should stop. He would stop for a while and mumble under his breath about how he hates all white people or just gaijin in general. Then he would start up again. So we left that party and went to another one a few blocks away for a few hours until the place closed and then we went back to the other place. I was too tired to stay out any longer but my friends wanted to stay out so I caught a cab back to Shiojiri.
I have just enjoyed a delicious bowl of home make chicken and rice soup which I have managed to make just like Mom does. It was very comforting because it is a rainy day here. I should probably get dressed now as it is almost 4 in the after noon but my PJs are too warm. I hope you all had a good weekend. I need to do some dishes now as I am all out of mugs and spoons.