Check out my sweet ride!

It's the bike in front :) The bike they got me was an 18 speed, but the seat was super uncomfortable, it didn't have a basket (for groceries and such), no bell, no lock, no light, and the back wheel had a serious wobble. I figured that it would cost just as much to add all that stuff as it would be to buy a new bike entirely. So I bought this bike for $115 and it came with two baskets, lock, front light (powered by the moving wheel!), comfy seat, umbrella holder, registration (in case it's stolen), and crash insurance (I would get $2000 worth of hospital bills paid if injured and $1000 or so to my family if I die, heaven forbid). It's a one speed granny bike, but it's so comfortable to ride. I have to bike up to an hour to get to one of my schools, so this bike will make that an enjoyable ride. There aren't many hills that I have to tackle, so there wasn't much need for multiple speeds on a daily basis. I might take it off some sweet jumps though :) Oh and note the size of the cars behind my sweet ride. My bike is nearly the same length as a car!

I got a lot of positive feedback from many of you this weekend! Thank you!!!!!! Thanks for reading too. To answer a few questions and requests....... The whirlpools are strong enough to suck a person or small boat in but we went right through them in a big tour boat. They also have peak times when the currents/whirlpools are strongest, so for the majority of the day they are weak or non-existant. I'd assume they bridge builders stopped building during peak times. Plus each individual whirlpool lasts about 10 seconds. I'm not about to jump in one, but I'd imagine a skilled swimmer with a good lung capacity could make it out of one okay.

I will do "food" and "tiny things" posts in the next couple days, but today I will just share my weekend with you. I went sailing!!! One of the guys that works downstairs has been sailing for 40 years and he invited Jeff, Jill, and me out on Saturday. We sailed for about 2 hours in the morning, parked at another island, ate lunch, and sailed back. There wasn't any wind in the morning so we had to use the engine, but we were able to move with a full sail on the way back. I've been on many boats before but this was my first time on a sail boat. There's a lot that goes into sailing and the boat tips back and forth quite a bit more than, say a speedboat. Anyways, here's the boat, the view of many nearby mountains, and me stearing the boat on the way back at full sail. The guy that took us out told me that I was a natural at steering!






Yesterday I biked to a nationwide fundraising event for people with disabilities. There were events all over the nation and each event was on tv for a bit. There were many performances, including Jeff and Kagawa-san from the office. They did a little folk singing. The German in Naruto that just started working for the German House (former German concentration camp) via JET was there too. He did a little European geography lesson in Japanese. I just watched and participated in the awa odori dancing.





As you can see I was in the sun a lot this weekend. I was wearing spf 45 and reapplying it whenever I realized that I probably sweat it all off. Despite this effort, I still got quite a bit of color. Others were wearing spf 30 and got burned!