This is going to be a busy weekend, so if I fail to post at some point I apologize. However, there should be plenty of interesting stories to tell come Monday...

Tomorrow morning I am meeting at my laboratory at 7:30 a.m. for a "lab trip." All of the students, professors, and secretaries (totaling 20 people) are heading to Saitama, which is 3 hours North of Tokyo by train, for a day of rafting and other debauchery. Everyone will also stay around Saturday for mountain biking, but I will catch the first train back to Tokyo so I can participate in the local Japanese festival.

On Saturday, Kumagai-san is hosting a party at the house starting at 13:00. There will be 15 or so people coming, including half a dozen nationalities and ages ranging from 22 to... (It is more diplomatic if I don't state the upper limit!) I will be dressed out in my festival attire (photos to come later!!) because at 15:30 I will help carry the portable shrine around Kita-Shinagawa. This two hour process will be laced with rest-stops to drink alcohol and converse with the crowd. The march will end at Shinagawa-jinja, which is a shrine located nearby. The rest of the night will include more drinking and merriment. I do not want to write too much now because this will be my first Japanese festival so much of it is new to me.

On Sunday, I will have a day off. In the morning, a masked figure will come to the house and perform some kind of ceremony to ward off evil spirits. We will repay his efforts with servings of alcohol and so forth. Then, the afternoon will be spent relaxing on the roof and watching another nearby festival take place.

And truthfully, I could use a day-off: this morning I subjected myself to the infamous lash that broke the humped-one's back. I stupidly set off on a 13 mile run, which was my first run in months. (Granted, I play soccer on a daily basis, but somehow that works slightly different muscles.) I was only planning on going for 30 minutes - possibly to the docks or along the Meguro river - but I changed my mind en route and ended up returning a couple of hours later. My muscles are now in considerable pain. I met David and Neil at the Ebisu Beer Hall this evening for our weekly get-together, but even the four glasses of Premium Lager couldn't numb the aches.

** The great thing about a personal weblog is I can share my own inconsequential stories. The bad thing about a personal weblog is nobody cares to read about my inconsequential stories (barring my very loyal mother). My apologies. **