Yashiro finished at around 2:30pm on Friday, after which a big group of us caught the bus back to Himeji. I was exhausted after Yashiro but had made plans to catch up with my badminton friend Daichi back in Ako, so I dragged myself out of my apartment and down to meet him. He was running very late and I got pounced on by the new missionaries in town while I was waiting, somewhat to my annoyance. They rode past me and noticed that I was a gaijin, so naturally they came back. I was polite about it though, and they seemed like decent people once I'd carefully warned them away from trying to preach at me. Usually the way :) While I was talking to the missionaries, Daichi and badminton Minato-san eventually rocked up and we zipped off to Daichi's house to pick up his PS2 for a night of crazy gaming action!

On the way we saw the aftermath of an accident where a car had hit a bike. It wasn't too serious, but we stopped and lent a hand. The biker was still on the ground, trapped under his bike, so Daichi and untangled him and helped him get off the road and sit down safely. As we drove away, Daichi and Minato-san were laughing and joking about exactly what I was thinking about - all the man would remember was that a gaijin had appeared out of nowhere to help him, spoke with him in semi-fluent Japanese, and then disappeared again just as quickly, haha. We laughed so much because we figured he'd probably wake up in the hospital later and think he was losing his mind, or that his doctors surely would when they heard his story :D

After rescuing the dude, we raced off to 47 Liquors to buy food and, surprisingly enough, liquor! Then it was back to Daichi's grandfather's house to party. His house was totally awesome, seriously. It's just off the main street in what is basically the perfect place to live, right in the centre of Ako. Most buildings there are quite new already, but this apartment was recently renovated and while small, is very attractive. While Minato-san went out to get more food and drink for some reason, Daichi showed me his family's shrine, which was on the top floor of the apartment. He also showed me how Japanese people pray at this type of shrine, and as I'd never seen a family shrine before, I was really grateful to have the experience.

When Minato-san came back we ate and drank and played PS2, some crazy Japanese train game which in true Japanese fashion punished the loser the most by sticking a 'bombii' (demon) to their train that did bad things every turn. Hahaha. After getting pounded in that, another guy from badminton showed up (whose name I can't remember ;/) and we wandered down to a konbini to get more food and drink. Everyone was a little drunk except for me, and I was glad about that because I met one of my students returning from a study camp. It must have looked rather amusing, with me wandering along chatting in Japanese with 3 drunken Japanese guys, haha. Yet another reminder of why I don't drink so much these days :)

At around midnight I called it a night as I was exhausted, and headed home to sleep. It was really fantastic to hang out with Daichi and Minato-san though, something I don't often have the opportunity to do here in Ako. They're cool guys and it's good to have people like that in Ako that I can randomly call up and hang out with. Friends make the world go around, after all.