eight days later

☆ went to tokyo midtown water fireworks with a friend and her two adorable sons. beer on the grass for an hour beforehand. perfect summer start.

☆ climbed mt. fuji with two girl friends. reminded me that i *am* in decent shape, and in much better shape than your average japanese girl. (yay but also...sigh...)　

☆ went shopping (running shoes and new work socks plus a dress, top, bag and two pairs of cute summer shoes all on sale, and dried mango from kaldi)

☆ saw futago-tamagawa fireworks with same friend and her two sons. i was a first time goer this year and will know better when picking out a spot next year. but they were good. the horrendous re-routing and traffic jam of people on the way back to the station was not good. may have to ride my bike there next year.

☆ started running. i've gone twice and can already tell that the path along the tama river is gonna be amazing for marathon training.

☆ rearranged my living room. i have been toying with the idea of buying a tv, so i rearranged with a space for it in mind. it's a nice change. now i might actually have to shell out of a tv??

☆ spent an entire day at yuigahama beach with a bunch of boys. most are friends of a friend, but they have welcomed me every time we hang out. some are so flamboyantly gay (on purpose?); it's built in entertainment. and this whitey managed *not* to get sunburned, but got just a touch of color, which is a miracle in and of itself.

☆ got a postcard from my "pen pal" and a book from matt logelin. as well as the postcard i sent to myself from the top of mt fuji. yay for something other than bills.

☆ took several "unplanned" naps on the couch, drank lots of beer, ate lots of junk food, and cooked a few times. THAT'S vacation, baby.