I, Tad, and the Middle School staff visited some of the middle schools holding sports festivals, which was kind of interesting. It was rather wet and cold, not unlike a typical day in Port Angeles, and so we were escorted under some large tents, accompanied by the ever-present photographers. The tall blonde guy from karaoke spotted me and sat down next to me, and we chatted under the tents as the poor middle school kids, clad in t-shirts and shorts, ran races in the stinging, wet air. There was this one interesting race in which the kids had to jump two hurdles, then run to a hula hoop and swing it around a few times, then run to a sack, get in it, and hop to the finish. Kind of odd, but quite amusing to watch. There were also these pre-packaged crackers on the table that had white chocolate and little dead fish, about half an inch long, on them. Yummy! (I tried to bring one home, but can't find it, unfortunately.) At a different festival, we saw the nice English teacher again, which was neat.

And then we were carted away up the mountain to paricipate in the opening of the Mt. Kamafuse - Mt. Osore "Panorama Line" road with the Mayor. The weather was terrible - rain, wind, and fog, although Senoe told us that usually the point we were at offered a spectacular view of Mutsu City and the surrounding forests. We arrived at the site of the ceremony, where a bunch of important-looking people stood under a tent. We were told the govenor and other such people of power would be present, and also that the ceremony would be broadcast on Tokyo TV! There was a big gold ball with ropes hanging from it suspended from a sort of frame over the road, and a ribbon stretched across the road about a foot or so in front of it. As we got out of the van, umbrellas in hand, Senoe explained to us that she and I would stand on one side of the gold ball and Scott and Tad would stand on the other side, and pair on our respective sides would grab one of the two ropes hanging from the ball and pull hard when the Mayor cut the ribbon to open the road. So, with cameras recording our every move, we stepped forward as a reporter lady announced us - as "-sama"! "Scott Braun-sama, Tad Price-sama, Courtney Myers-sama," etc. You must understand, -sama is a VERY respectful name attatchment reserved for God, kings, your boss, etc. And we had been announced in such a way on Tokyo TV! A bit astonished, I stepped up with the others and we took our places underneath the gold ball, smiling like morons. ("Smile big, you're on TV," we'd been told.) Senoe's umbrella inside-outed itself, causing a bit of a distraction, but we all managed to pull on command, and the gold ball opened up to spew forth a hanging banner and streamers, very cute.

We were then suppossed to stand around and listen to a bunch of speeches, but the sideways-blowing-rain relieved us of that, and we zipped away to the Plaza Hotel for the ceremony and reception. Since the goings-on on the mountain had been cut short, we had some time to sit around and do nothing, which was nice. :) We went in to this big room and found our reserved seats right up front (!! - I recognized mine by the "PC" amongst the kanji), and listened to the Mayor of Mutsu make some speeches. As I could not understand any of it, I kind of glanced around and realized that I was by far the youngest person in the room (although they all think I'm like 26 anyway). After the speeches we went into another room with tables (again, reserved seats right up front!) and sat down to dinner. I kind of got the feeling that everyone in the room knew everything about us when

We were given some weird pastry things with the kanji for "congratulations" written on them. I think they were mochi, which is pounded rice. (There's this myth about the rabbit pounding mochi on the moon, as opposed to our "man in the moon." The name of "Tsukino Usagi", or, Sailormoon in the anime, means "rabbit on the moon," and is a reference to that myth, since she is the Moon Princess and all. But that's a whole different story. :)

I ate a lot of food, but not too much, because we still had the huge farewell party coming up right afterwards. I did drink a gulp of sake during a toast, though - blaugh! It scalded my throat! I decided to bring a bottle home for my parents instead.

And then... it was the farewell party. Only two days ago we'd had the welcome variety, and it was already time to say goodbye to Mutsu. The party was held at the Mutsu Grand Hotel, and an absolute mob showed up, including our entire delegation, the host families, and anyone else who had a role in our being there. There was a marvelous spread of food, but I think the only thing I had was a slice of cake and some gross kiwi jello. I wasn't hungry, for some reason. Sayuko and some guy acted as translators as various people came up and gave speeches. I mingled amongst the crowd for a while, took pictures and had my picture taken, and watched the musical ensambles that performed on the stage. At one point the lights dimmed and an elementary school choir, clutching candles, stepped onto the stage and sang in angelic voices, almost better that any choir I've heard. After they'd finished they asked our delegation to come to the stage, and they lined up in front of us and presented us each with a rose. We each took a hand and walked off the stage and into the applauding crowd. Several of the middle school students from the P.A. delegation were quite touched by this and sobbed quietly. But we weren't finished yet. The adults of the delegation, including myself, were called back up and presented with gita, or those traditional wooden Japanese shoes with the blocks on the bottom. I think they were made of hiba, because they smelled very fresh and lovely. The high school and middle school students recieved something even cooler - a little name stamp, that stamped their names in katakana (the Japanese symbols used to spell out foreign words.)