the past week has been incredibly tiring and tiresome for me - as i attended some potentially interesting and exciting events with some hopelessly dull people. alas, i did manage to scrape up some amazing pictures with my tragically nerd-fabulous sony cybershot dsc-p1. for ineluctable practicality, i scaled the images down for the connection-speed-challenged.

The koi pond at Anraku-Ji, a Buddhist shrine somewhere in the valley of the Bizan Mountains, and west of Tokushima City. For about four painful days, I was a "camp counselor" for ten junior high school students not at all interested in English or in me. Between my inability to feign enthusiasm and the incessant, inane gripings of my fellow counselors about the unwesterness of Japanese food, I didn't have much time to actually enjoy being at an otherwise beautiful and serene place.

Waiting for tonight. As part of orientation, all the new and renewing JETs had to dance in the Awa Odori, the third largest dance festival in the world, outshone only by Mardi Gras and whatever it is they do in Rio. I took this picture on the third day of the festivites as I waited on line to flail my arms for thousands of drunken onlookers. At this point I had already danced for 5 hours and had watched another 5 the previous day. Yay.

A tributary of the Yoshino River. I enjoy myself more away from the maddening crowd.

Where the streets have no name. The population of Tokushima City is approximately 260,000 men, women, and children. During Awa Odori, that number inflates to over 2 million dancers, watchers, and other. To contradict myself, let me reveal that I like large crowds. I'm a complicated person.