A home stay weekend...

So... hmmm.... what did I do this weekend??? Well, many things, many random things. My host sister came to get me at my hotel at 4:00pm on Saturday and we took the train to her house in Matsukawa city. We arrived just in time to attend a festival in the city. We spent all night watching the performers in the parade and the fantastic fire works display. We also bought some fire works of our own and set them off in the park. It was very fun. Last week I had been upset that I missed the 4th of July, but now I am feeling better about it. As long as I have a healthy dose of fireworks once a year I'll be fine. I ate so much food at the festival!!! It was incredibly delicious! I love artery clogging festival food!!! I ate Nikuma (a kind of chinese dumplings), Yakitori (Japanese chicken on a stick, a polish sausage, and ice cream!!! and when I returned to my host family's house, my host mom had more snacks waiting for me! (I think I gained some weight this weekend!!!) On Sunday, my host family drove me to another city in our area named Matsumoto. We saw a castle there that was very beautiful, and the scenery was different than what I am used to because it was raining all day. In fact, it has been raining everyday. I am really missing Missouri sunshine right now.... This morning, I went for lunch with my host sister, her english teacher, some other Japanese students, and one other american girl from my program to an amazing Italian restaurant. It was very well priced and the food was beyond delicious!!! Hopefully I can go back there some time... After lunch, we spent 2 hours doing Karaoke. I sang too many songs and now my throat is a little sore, but it will be better in the morning. Our homestays ended today when it was time for our puppet rehearsal to begin. Everyone was so exicited to see one another and tell the stories we had acquired from our weekend away.