Ichinomiya

May 20th saw us finally making it over to Mike and Colleen's hip locale, Ichinomiya. Ichinomiya is a bit smaller than Wadayama and lacks a train station, so Colleen was fantastic enough to come grab us and drive us down. Mike and Colleen have forged a lot of local ties, so Saturday was a busy day:

*a mini matsuri at a kindergarten, complete with lively and adorable kids. I cannot say enough how much I wish I had a day at an elementary school. These kids were really fun and friendly.

*a somen noodle dinner party. More on this later.

*real wood-fired pizza at a local bar. The bar owner traveled Italy for a year and now makes amazing pizzas here in Japan.

After a busy day of socializing, we unwound at the bar with pizza and booze. mmmmmm!! I so wish we had a place this cool here. Must explore more. Then it was back to their place, where Mike introduced us to the hilarious epic that is R. Kelly's "In the closet." Unbelievable.

The next day Colleen made a fantastic breakfast, then drove down to Himeji. Colleen was off for soccer practice nearby, so Aaron and I bummed around Himeji a bit before training home. Turns out there was a Kenka Matsuri [fighting shrine festival], so we browsed the food stalls, walked around, saw the men in the loinclothes, checked out the shrines, etc. Then we were off for home, exhausted but happy about our great weekend.