The Obihiro Week!

This week's exchange was in Obihiro, which is a 3.5 hour bus ride from Sapporo. There are two companionships there right now, so we were there from Tuesday night to Friday morning and it was a ton of fun! It was my first time going out there. The highlight was... meeting my trainer Masuda Shimai! She is married now and living there so I got to go to her house with the other sisters. It was a party. But more on that in a sec! I shall tell this story with pictures.

First ones are from last week's p-day! We had another music fireside this past week (did I remember to tell you about that?), so last week was our last practice. And we had a special guest of Kawasaki Choro, who was in my first district but then went home only a couple of weeks after I got here to Japan. So it was fun to see him again! These are from the room where we practice upstairs in the mission home. Yep.

In front of the Obihiro Eki! (This makes it look like pretty big city, but it is actually more of an agricultural area other than the main downtown. It is super pretty with lots of flowers!)

Travel!

And there were super adorable kittens at one of the members houses that we visited. That is important.

And dinner with Masuda Shimai (ok, now it is Hashimoto Shimai) at her apartment with her husband! It was sooo happy! And delicious! She made all of my favorite foods we ate together because she is so wonderful -- pizza and crispy little apple pies.

Making dinner at the Obihiro apartment for the six of us. It was pretty packed with futons practically on top of each other to get us all in, but way fun!

From the group pictures left to right: Kise Shimai, me, Furue Shimai from Kagoshima Japan, Yabutani Shimai from Wakayama Japan, Sugihara Shimai from Washington, and Coyne Shimai from all over (most recently Oklahoma? But she lived in Germany for like five years too and is super super fluent, which is awesome).

View from the bus back.

The four Odori Sisters in front of the old Hokkaido government building on the day of the music fireside. It was a our meetng spot to go out to lunch with a member and it was just so pretty that we couldn't resist taking pictures while waiting!

And pics from DTM lunch last tuesday! And a road stop on the way to Obihiro. A little out of order.

And that is all I can do today! Love you all! Things are going great, and the weather is finally getting nice! I am going without tights for the first time today. Freedom!

Ok, until next week!