hikaru-kun

 when i went to japan in july of 2009,

i rode my bicycle from tokyo-kyoto.

in march of that year, this guy came to hawaii

and took part in the rainbow connection.

he offered to let me crash on his floor in tokyo!

i was super lucky, and am really thankful.

but he's from kochi, and he was visiting his parents,

so they threw a barbeque. 

i haven't seen him since, so it was real nice to meet him again.

their house was beautiful,

with an amazing garden to barbeque and relax..

(psst, they eat a lot of fish in japan)

delta kappa gamma

i think i forgot to tell you guys 

that i joined a secret society of female teachers called

delta kappa gamma

 this is my leader

 you might be familiar with this lady.. maybe not.. 

she goes to my church in hawaii

 this lady has appeared a number of times, 

she's pretty much my mom in kochi

 and this last one is my favorite pic of the night!

anyway, with this ceremony, 

delta kappa gamma has expanded into japan.

apparently this is a real big step, 

and it's kinda cool that it's here in kochi.

apparently the president lady liked me a lot!

takamarunomiya speech contest

 been working hard recently.

 recently there was a nationwide speech contest,

and the preliminaries are held in every prefecture.

next they move onto the all japan contest, 

...if they win..

 and they did, boom!

 our school took first place for the original speech,

and second place for the recitation. 

it was pretty intense, lots of crying people, 

lots of people freezing on stage.. 

lots of fierce competition.

but we came out on top! whoop whoop!