After all the grading all week long from all the midterms, I was completely wiped. I’ve received my four extra classes that will be starting next week. Definitely feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how I’m supposed to get all my work done. I had to grade half of the exam for all 120 second years and the 120 first years too. Still working through the pile.

Today Kasumi comes! It’s so exciting to meet up with old university friends. We were heading to a sunflower festival in Midori today so I took the train in Takasaki and met her at the station at 11:30 am. We got lunch together at Subway in the food court. Mind-blown. Completely different choices. You can get fries and only six inch subs. I got smoked salmon with mascarpone and she got the duck sandwich.The choices were extensive and only six or so were the same US ones. When picking your toppings, there are no banana peppers or jalapenos, and you just say what you don’t want on your sandwich. Easy enough since I know the word for all. We caught a hour train to Iwajuku station where Kasumi called the bus service and told them where and when to pick us up. It was more of a private shuttle for 300 yen haha. It took us from right by the conbini at the station to the sunflower fields.

There were some food stalls and three fields with sunflowers. One was blooming strongly, but the others still weren’t at full bloom yet (so late!). When we arrived, they were just starting the archery on horseback demonstration. It was a tiny lane they had to gallop down while drawing and shooting an arrow into a piece of wood on a stand to break it. There were three targets. Some hit and others missed. It looked so hard especially at the speed they were riding! It was a bit sad though to see how some of the horses were treated. They were pretty jumpy and shoved around a lot by multiple people. Definitely seemed like the bit hurt. Afterward, we took some sunflower photos in the best field and each got a fresh manju (bun with red bean paste inside).

We decided to walk back to the train station since the shuttle bus couldn’t come for another 15 minutes. The poster had said a 20 minute walk, google said 25 minutes and it took us closer to 30 min. Always a bit nerve wracking walking along narrow Japanese roads where there are no sidewalks. We had just missed our train by ten minutes so we hung around waiting for about 30 min at the station. It’s nice to just swipe your Suica card at the station entrance. No gates. By the time we got back to Takasaki, it was already dark. We decided to get dinner in Tomioka at Mirai so we rode the private line all the way to Joshutomioka. I think it was interesting for Kasumi to see our bumbling country train.

I told her to remember how deserted the streets were and to compare it with the tourist rush we were going to see tomorrow. This time at Mirai, Kasumi easily deciphered the menu for me. She got an interesting cassis drink that tasted sweet and good. Together we ate fried cheese, sashimi, yakisoba, yakitori, and fried shrimp (little whole shrimp!). We walked back to my place and crashed.. Sadly it was cloudy, because you can see the stars pretty well in Tomioka.