You wouldn't think the Japanese would party so much.

Found out why I haven't heard from my host family in a couple weeks: Grandma Kitai has been in the hospital for stomach surgery. She's doing okay now, though she's still hospitalized, and we dropped by to see her Sunday.

Went out afterwards for this big festival -- September 1st is a national holiday here, though I'm not sure what the story is behind it (anyone know?) In Tsuru, the celebration involves sending a parade up and down all the streets (and I mean ALL of them; they went right past the Kitai's house, and it's on some puny side street). The parade ends at the main festival grounds (surrounding a local high school), which was just SWAMPED with people. Seriously, one stretch of booths was stop-and-go traffic. For pedestrians. O_o Anyway, Mrs. Kitai insisted on getting a picture of me with the ohimi-sama (princess; actually just some lucky parade participant who was selected to wear the royal kimono and get escorted by the "soldiers"), and after spending an hour or two wandering around the grounds, we went back to the house and watched fireworks from the roof.

Incidentally, they told me my Japanese had improved noticeably in the past two weeks. (Which means I actually understand them half the time.)