On Friday night I headed into Sannomiya to catch up with some friends. One of them, Michelle, had her parents staying, so we were all going to go out and give them a taste of Japanese cuisine izakaya style. Unfortunately the izakaya Michelle wanted to go to was booked, so everyone just decided to meet anyway and try to find somewhere. I got there a bit late because of ESS club and train times, and when I did I found out that they hadn't been able to find anywhere ;/ Michelle and her parents had gone back to the hotel to try to find something around there instead. I felt a bit bad about that because I'd said there were so many places in Sannomiya that we were bound to find somewhere that wasn't full, especially at 6:30pm. Gomen, ne!

So Cassie, Emma, Matt, Goran, Dan and I ended up in a little ramen place in the awesome little alley network just north of Sannomiya Hankyuu station. I'd often walked through there but never had the confidence to go in alone. The ramen turned out to be awesome though, and we washed it all down with $3 beers. Party times indeed! After that we went for a wander, grabbed coffee at Starbucks and then walked down towards the big covered arcade. There were lots of people dancing there, doing hip hop and breakdancing in front of the giant windows on the shops that became mirror like in the low light of the evening. One of the breakdancers was pretty good, so we watched him for a little while.

I had to return to Ako that night, though, which was a pain, so I had to cut my evening short and jump on the 10:20pm train. I was really tired so the 105 minute ride (I could only catch a regular express train) back to Ako was absolutely painful. I got there in the end though, and then consistent with the idiotic behaviour I've become addicted to, stayed up until 4am doing a whole lot of nothing. I kicked myself on Saturday when I woke up after mid day. I had wanted to go to Goran's school's culture festival but had absolutely no chance of making it. So I was in a bad mood, even though I knew I had nobody to blame but me. I really must try to change this stupid behaviour and start sleeping earlier. It's a bad habit that's carried over from some of my less enjoyable times working in Perth.

Anyway, I was a bit happier when I remembered that I was heading out to catch up with my friend Aimee for dinner, so got ready quickly and raced into Sannomiya. When I got there though, I found out that she'd been at (and was still at) Goran's festival and everyone there had decided to go to Matt and Emma's for dinner instead. They invited me along, which was nice, but not really appropriate seeing as it was a) at Matt's and Emma's house, b) Matt and Emma had to cook for everyone and c) it had started out, as far as I know, as a small 'going away dinner' for Cassie and a few others. So needless to say I was pissed off, having made solid plans only to have them come apart, leaving me having just arrived somewhere 75 minutes from home with nothing to do.

I tried to make the best of it though, by walking around the shops a bit, grabbing a coffee and reading some of the book I'd brought for the train. I figured I'd hang out for a while, grab a dinner and then head to Polo Dog, which was where everyone else was going after dinner anyway. I wasn't really in the mood for any of it any more though, so was thinking about heading home when I got a message from Matt saying it was ok to go to dinner. I was pretty relieved about that and jumped on the train to Tarumi.

Somehow I managed to find their house, hehe - I'd only been there once before. It turned out to be a really great party, too. It had been a long time since I'd caught up with the Perthy's in a small enough group and in the right kind of place to be able to have a really great conversation, so I was happy. Matt cooked up some Italian meatballs which were fantastic, especially considering how hard it is to get authentic ingredients ;) After dinner we hung out chatting until around 9ish, when we raced into Sannomiya to Polo Dog.

I'd heard of it before, way back when I came to Sannomiya on my holiday in April last year, but I didn't go there then and hadn't gone since coming back. It was actually a really great place, though. Admittedly it was a special night, as some JETs were playing there and it was their last performance before they return home. I saw a few familiar faces and met some new people, and the atmosphere was really great. The place was a little small, but that's normal for Japan, haha. Regardless, it was so much nicer than Tiger Pub, and it really made me miss having somewhere like that in Ako, or perhaps more realistically, Himeji. So Amanda and I decided to start one there one day, haha ;) Anyway, again, I had to leave early to get home on the train, but this time it was ok because I had Amanda and Suzie as company on the train until Himeji :)

On Sunday it was the famous Yukata Matsuri in Himeji, woohoo! I had to ride to the station so I didn't wear my yukata right away, much to the surprise of Yusaku who I met at Himeji station all decked out in his. We went straight up to our little shop to pick up our fans and they kindly let me change there. As I left a few students rode by on bikes and called out 'Kakkoi!' in surprise when they saw me, haha. That happened a few times, actually, lol. We had some time to kill as we'd met rather early and the Matsuri didn't kick off until 4:30pm-ish, so we grabbed a coffee and chilled out for a bit. Finally the others came and we met Emma, Matt, Amanda, Cassie and Ann at the Egret building. Everyone looked awesome in their yukata/jinbeis!

From there we pretty much wandered around enjoying the festival and getting rained on, until we grabbed some dinner in a not so waterproof festival tent. A little later we met Nate and went to a nice (but very quiet) bar called Not Blue, in the north east of Himeji. I couldn't make up my mind whether I liked it or not, but it was very clean, open aired, comfortable and non-gaijiny so I was happy :) We went for another short walk through the festival stalls and caught trains home just after 10pm. It was really great to be part of yet another cultural festival and wear a yukata ;) It really makes you feel like you're a part of the community, rather than a gaijin living awkwardly in it.