Last Tuesday I whittled away the morning in sweet anticipation of the "2012 Nipponbashi Festa" that started in the afternoon. The event was supposed to start from one o'clock but when I arrived early at twelve thirty the main street through Den-den Town (Electric town, the local name for Nipponbashi) was already closed off and packed with people. I wandered around a bit taking lots of pictures by myself before meeting up with some friends and wandering with them for the remainder of the three hour long event. Unlike other Japanese festivals there aren't any food or game stalls set up on the side of the road. This is just an afternoon long cos-play (dress-up) event punctuated at intervals with small parades of the police marching band, the mayor of Den-den Town, and the maids from the local 'maid cafes'. Like clockwork at four o'clock the main street opened back up to traffic. A lot of the people dispersed at that point but a few stragglers moved to the next road over (Ota-road, or "nerd-road") for a sort of after-party where I was able to snap just a few more pictures. After ging out for dinner I played video games with a friend late into the evening before crashing into bed and sleeping off the six miles of meandering I had done that day.
Wednesday morning was spent sorting my photos and doing light housework. In the afternoon and evening I had friends over for yet another game night. In addition to the usual crew a friend I haven't seen in a while came over which was a nice surprise.
Thursday morning was my last day of special assignment training which meant it was the last day I had to get up at seven and drag myself out of the house by eight. In the early morning's brain fog I accidentally got on the wrong train (headed to my afternoon shift, not my morning training session.) I managed to make it in on time but it was a lot closer than I would have liked. After training I had a short lunch break again and then headed off to my last day of kids classes for this contract. As with last Thursday, I was dead tired by the time I got home and quickly fell asleep.
Friday I woke up early and did a lot of busy work. I managed to get the laundry, week's grocery shopping, and house cleaning finished before I headed off to work in the afternoon. In the evening I met up with a friend who was working close by and played some more video games for a while.
Saturday's shift was pretty slow. Without kids classes the day dragged a bit. In the evening I went out to a going-away party that ended up being the social event of the season. There were a lot of people from all over there including a few people I hadn't seen in a while.
Sunday's shift was busy as usual but in contrast to Saturday, went fairly quickly. I ended up playing video games with a different friend Sunday night. (The game I've been playing this year is a very long cooperative Japanese role -playing-game that is taking us a while to beat.)
Looking into next week there's not a lot on the docket other than another going-away party on Saturday night and the schedule change next Sunday (which won't effect me as my Sunday/Monday shifts won't change.)
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