Cicadas forming the soundtrack to my life.

Its like being on some tropical movie show.

There is no daylight saving here, so it gets light about 4:30 in the morning. At which point the birds wake, closely followed by the cicadas, and then me. It finally being cool enoughto sleep, I relish not sweating profusely for a couple of hours, curl over and snuggle into my sheet.

Yesterday was a public holiday. The Day of the Sea. I didnt know this but was told by some sailors who I was trying to suck up to in broken tongues of many varieties. I wanted to go to the beach,which meant catching a train and a ferry. Caught the wrong train which was exciting because I ended upon the big bridge to the mainland, considering being freaked out about being busted by an uptight ticket inspector,but being too stoked about the view to really care.

I got toTakamatsu and stood overlooking the Inland Sea on one of the clearest days Ive expereienced. It was soo beautiful. And then, low and behold, I spot dhingies heading into a har\bour a km away. Wahoo! Have been looking, unsucessfully, for a boat since I got here. I weave my way around the back streets and finally find a few guys sitting around in a carpark come foreshore.

"Hello. Excuse me very much. My name is Kirstie" i bravely state as they look curiously at me.
"Im an Osutoralian person".
"I like sayringu."
"I like sayringu very very much."

Ive run out of things to say and start looking around for an embarrassed escape exit. Someone decides to brave their high school English, smiles and says hello back. I breath a sigh of relief. After another few minutes of awkwardness another guy ventures " You want to join sayringu club."

"Ahh, so, so, soo desu ne"

Then the English teacher comes out to help and they tell me this is day of the sea, the race is a special occassion, and its difficult for me to join a club. But we swap sailing stories and one guy tells me his friend owns a yacht and a dhingy. Oops. Ive forgotten my phone number, so I give him my email address and pray to the gods of the sea he willcontact me.

I never made it to the beach, but the beach will wait. I think many more hot days lie ahead. Hopefully I will get my wish to learn to sail inJapanese. Sugoi desu ne.