And June just flew by!

I can't believe I'm already changing the calendars again! This spring I resolved to do as much as possible in my last few months here, and looking ahead at my calendar for the rest of the summer, I can see that it's definitely happening! Here's a look back at June:

This month, our beloved fellow-teacher, Kaila, returned to Canada. The weekend before she left, the four of us went to Matsushima Bay and spent the day on trains, boats, islands and beaches! Between running to get to every train and boat of the day, performing a going-away dance for Kaila and using the provided rope to climb down to the beach, we got lots of exercise! Here we are on the boat:



We miss you, Kaila!!


In mid-June, my brother, Peter, and sister-in-law, Felisa, came to visit! The day after they got here, we climbed Mount Himekami (3,687 ft.) with a group of friends, including two four-year-old girls!

We had lots of interesting creatures of the sea at the sushi restaurant:

We listened to a storyteller with a cold in Tono city. She apologized to us before and after for it being in Japanese! She was very friendly and invited us to sit on the stage with her for a picture:

Peter and Felisa proved that the castle barriers at Iwate Park were no match for their invasion skills:

And we ended the week with the true test of chopstick-skills: the wankosoba noodle-eating competition. Peter had 162 bowls and Felisa had 100! Everyone was impressed - and very concerned with whether or not Peter would be okay after having that many!

On Saturday morning, 15 minutes before we were going to leave to bring Peter and Felisa to Morioka station, we had a big earthquake! The trains, highways and airports in our region were shut down for the day, so there was no way for them to get to the airport. So we had one more day together, which meant they were here for the Chagu-Chagu horse parade: