On Sunday Misa came down to Ako to explore, and we checked out the Ako museum and the remains of the castle. It was pretty interesting, even though I couldn't read much of what was written. Around 5 or so we headed back to my place for coffee, only for me to realise that I didn't have any - haha. So we went to Jusco and bought a coffee maker. We also grabbed some bento for dinner and spent the rest of the evening listening to music. Good times!

The Tuesday after that, I finally managed to have Ewan and Ai over one Tuesday night. I'd been meaning to have Ewan (and many others) over for dinner for a long time, but my old house was so horrible and out of the way that I never got around to it. Now I'm central and have a wonderful house, I can finally entertain :) Well, try to, anyway, haha. The night Ewan came I was running very late as it was my athletics night. So I was only just beginning to prepare when they arrived, and admittedly spent most of my time in the kitchen. Apparently the food was good though (random chicken stir fry thing and takoyaki) and we had some interesting conversations, so overall it was a good night. I realised that despite having been in Ako for 1.5 years, I really don't know Ewan that well. Still, it's never too late to start to get to know good people.

The last weekend in April was really busy. I caught up with Misa, Amanda and Case for lunch on Saturday at a funky little restaurant called Dada, near Himeji station. It was super cool hanging out, just the 4 of us. Around 4pm I had to shoot back to Ako for a dinner, though, which was a shame - I didn't really want to leave as the others were all going back to Amanda's for a movie/wine/cheese night! Still, I'd promised Kanatani-sensei and her family that I'd have dinner with them at their house in Ako, and it turned out that I was really glad I went. Her family is lovely and as is so common in Japan there were 4 generations at dinner. I loved talking to Kanatani-sensei's grandma, who is ancient but still very genki. I couldn't always understand what she said but I did my best, and I realised that she was one of the ladies I often used to see wandering around when I rode to school from my old house. So that was kinda cool :D

Kanatani-sensei's younger sister was there too, along with her two little kids - one around 3 years old, the other just over 1. So I played with them and stuffed their faces with the chocolates I'd brought, hehe, and I weathered a storm of interest and questions about me and Australia over about three hours worth of handmade gyoza, katsudonburi and liver salad. Fan-delicious-tastic :D I also talked to Kanatani-sensei's youngest sister and coincidentally my ex-student on the phone - she's been in Australia on a working holiday for nearly a year. I was really surprised how good her English had become!

Finally, the month finished on yet another high note as I scored myself some new furniture through pure luck :) Minato-san's wife's sister has gone to Brazil for 3 years and as a result sent all her furniture to Minato-san. He doesn't have room for it all in his house so he gave me his fridge, washing machine, dryer and a table with two chairs. I didn't really need the fridge or washing machine, but they were much nicer than the ones I had and as he needed somewhere to store it all and was being very generous letting me borrow it all in the first place, I couldn't refuse :) So I spent a public holiday Wednesday morning helping him move his old stuff out onto a truck, moving his new stuff in and then moving all the old stuff into my house. Good times! Having a dryer is going to be great during rainy season, especially as I don't have any eaves/a verandah to dry my washing under any more, and I really needed a table.