May in Review Part 1

So this month has flown by what with visitors and work and more visitors and more work and school. Here's a quick review of some of the more interesting bits.


In the time between when my parents left and our next group of visitors came by, I went to an ILC (Interenational Lady's Club) event where we visited a shrine in Sasebo that is drowning in Wisteria:



Then it was Golden Week (a series of Japanese Holidays that lead the natives to take a week off and have major sales), so Zack and I went to Arita for China shopping. This year we brought a camera, so imagine miles and miles of this:



Golden Week includes a day called either Boy's Day or Children's Day depending on how politically correct the speaker is. The park by our house had a little party in honor of kids that day:



Then there was the change of command ceremony for the ship...

Followed immediately by a renewal of vows ceremony for the new CO, which meant even more men in choker white uniforms...

And that was all before the second week of May was over! After that our friends Emily and Michael arrived, and we did a bunch of sight seeing... more pictures to follow...