A Different View of Life

Long time no post, I'm sorry! Today has been a busy week. As you can see, I've been helping my friend Mark get adjusted to life in Kumamoto. Mark has minor Cerebral Palsy, which means he can still communicate very well and get out of his wheel chair. I first met him on Saturday last week, then again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and I will meet him again next Monday.

From the bottom up:

1) On Tuesday, Mark, his coordinator Mr. Yamashta, and I went to visit another Filipina in the city. Her name is Alma, and she's from Luzon. She's only staying until April, and then she's going back to the Philippines.

2) This is Mark Espesor! The sun was glaring so...

3) That same day we visited Kumamoto Castle, and here is Mr. Yamashta and Mark in front of a samurai statue.

4, 5, 6) Wonderful castle; it'll be prettier by the end of this month, due to the cherry blossoms and all...

7, 8) On Wednesday the three of us went to see another Filipina in town. Fortunately, I knew her, haha! Her name is Lani (in the white) and her husband in blue is Allan. We met at Kumamoto University, not my university, and there we talked for 2 hours. Mark andn Allan are from Iloilo, so they were having a good time. Lani is from Visaya and Michelle, who just happened to show up (she's another Filipina I met through Lani), is from the north of Manila. And there's me, goofy.

It's nice meeting Mark, but by the 18th he has to go back to Tokyo to finish his leadership training. Then in July he will go back to the Philippines and utilise his training there. Okay, that's all for today!

Next week: Karuizawa! Finally~

これ、秘密：先週の週末、軽井沢の旅のために僕が新しいDVDビデオカメラとMDも買ったばかりです。そして、DVDをアメリカの家族に送ってあげて、みんなをびっくりさせたいだからです。こういうことは内緒でも、日本語がわかる家内の人はいないし、へへへ。