PuriKura

I honestly think it has been raining or at the very least, dripping, for - well - I can't even remember the last time it wasn't. Since so many other parts of the world are missing rain, I feel so selfish to have so much here! Ah, well, I guess it wouldn't be "rainy season" without the RAIN. The rice fields need it anyway, desho?
We had a bbq at a waterfall scheduled for last night, but, well, you can guess that didn't happen. The party was moved indoors to "Espace" which is a cafe owned by the same people who own the bar where we do our eikaiwa (English conversation) class on Wednesday nights. After we had a FEAST (thank you, Tanaka-san!), we chatted, played with the Wii, and in between raindrops, had fun with some sparklers/fireworks. Neat pic of Makiko-chan, ne! I got lucky with the timing on that one. Afterwards the gaijins headed to the video arcade by "Satiwan" (that would be katakana for "31" as in Baskin Robbins 31 flavors..) for a little "purikura" (my guess is that it's katakana for "print club"), and games. I honestly got a bit sick being cooped up in the smoky, blaring environment, but I was able to stand it long enough to do a couple of pics with the Isahaya crowd. For those of you who don't know what purikura is, picture a big photo booth where you cram in, pose in different positions (ours even had a jungle gym you could climb on inside!), decorate the photos, and print them out as tiny stickers. Tons of fun for only 450yen!