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Never have I celebrated my birthday so many times in one year until coming to Nagashima. Last weekend several of us met at a nearby ramen shop for both dinner and karaoke. It quickly became clear that some of the men had a bit too much to drink as they began taking turns swinging from the rafters of the restaurant. Coincidently, that also happened to be about the same time the owner of the shop turned off our karaoke and said the restaurant was closing. I wonder if that means we aren’t welcome back.

A few days later the Furuta family, good friends mine, invited Curtis and I over for a barbecue party. We played with sparklers, ate lots of delicious meat and veggies, and they even surprised me with a great looking and tasting birthday cake. I took lots of pictures so check them out!

Oh, but before looking be warned that I cut all my hair off. Actually, I haven’t cut my hair this short since I was in elementary school so I was a bit nervous beforehand. The good news is that everyone seems to like the new look here on the island and while it took a bit of time adjusting to I have grown to like it too. One teacher even told me that she really thought the shape of my head was beautiful. Receiving such a compliment was a first for me, but hey, a compliment is a compliment, right?












Weather conditions have finally started to clear up and recently the sky and sunsets have been beautiful. Also, last night I was able to check out the moon with my new telescope for the first time. The phase of the moon is currently in a Waxing Gibbous Phase which means the full moon will be visible soon. After setting up the telescope I had great fun with my neighbors checking out the night sky. We took some pictures too!

Lastly, I am disappointed to inform you that my second visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles ended in failure. I passed the written test and the eye test with ease, but unfortunately I was not as successful with the driving portion of the test. At one point during the test my proctor yelled at me and said, “This is not America!” That’s when I knew I had failed. He told me that I need to go back to driving school and practice left and right turns. Then there was that time that I was accidentally driving in the turning lane . . . the proctor didn’t seem to like that much either. Curtis failed too. He doesn’t signal well. Sigh.