Behold, the most powerful pencil in all of Japan.

Rapid fire set #2

Rapid fire set #1

Okimi Fireworks

Tonight my small town held the last ever Okimi-cho bon o-dori festival. Capping off the night was a very impressive display of fireworks from such a small, cash-strapped place. My camera can't capture fireworks well, but I'll include some pictures anyway. Oh, the reason that this year is the last festival is because the town is merging with the three other towns on the island and becoming a city.

The river...um..I mean the road in front of my house...

Volunteer firefighter moving sandbags around. Notice that he's smoking.

God Burger anyone?

Mitaka, The Three High Places

Summer Flooding

Ahh...summer in Japan. This year is going to be especially hot for some reason. Last weekend brought Typhoon 10 to western Japan. Not only did the typhoon bring lots of fat rain drops, but it also brought part of a river to my doorstep. I've never had that happen before, so frankly I was nervous. The flooding happened late at night while the power went out inermittently. Eventually the rain stopped and the water returned to it's concrete channel.