The Zoo

Tuesday we joined the "Nonomi Biraki" mountain opening festival at the top of the nearby mountain. This time we drove up, but I brought three bikes in the hopes that I could entice some locals to ride down with me. In the end I only found one reluctant semi-local (only living here for one year) to join me on the amazing ride down a dirt road into the ski-hill.

The mountain has a man-made lake used to save all that winter precipitation for use in the rice fields in the summer. It looks like a great lake to do some kayaking on those hot summer days we are not looking forward to. Recently it has just been soo hot. Nothing like Tokyo, but hotter than Hakuba was last summer.

The local reporter was there as well and we discussed the possibility of me becoming a Sakae Village photo journalist for their weekly paper. Its looking promising - or else he is just being polite.

Tonight I head to Akiyamago for trumpet practice. Recently we have been practicing every day for a contest coming up in a week that I will not even be able to attend because I have customers here.

Our house is becoming a zoo. We now have 1500 silkworms, 5 cocktails (and one ready to hatch egg), 300 trout, many flies, at least 3 mice, and Tomoe and I.