(10/2) Friday- Eric will be giving his first big exam on Monday so during class he taught review sessions and played some games to help the student figure out what to study. I spent most of the day resting in hopes of being able to go to the Garlic Festival tomorrow. We went out for Okinomiyaki in Ajigasawa tonight and it was certainly delicious. The owners of Slowly (the restaraunt we like to go to for Okinomiyaki) don't speak any English and I was trying very hard to explain to them that I cannot have pork of shell fish, we got the main idea across and they ended up bringing out each kind of meat in a small bowl to make sure they didn't serve me something I was allergic too. They also gave us Apples as Omiyage (gift) when we were leaving... I'm not sure if they were so thankful we were finally leaving, or if they were excited because we are not Japanese.
(10/3) Saturday- We made it to the Takko Garlic and Beef Fesitval!! The town of Takko is on the opposite side of the prefecture from us so the drive there was about 4 hours and Genevieve went with us. Unfortunately we drove in very heavy rain, and we got really lost so that slowed us down quite a bit.
It was all worth it though, as soon as we got to Takko all of the rain stopped and it was a clear and beautiful day! We had Kobe beef sliced right off the cow that was on the largest rotiserre I have ever seen! We also bought some beef and fresh veggies and a delicious garlic sauce and grilled our lunch. They had hundreds of grills set up all around the lawns and it smelled of delicious beef and garlic. We also bought a jar of Garlic soaking in Soy Sauce, while it sounded a little strange at first, it sure tasted delicious. We also bought a large bag of garlic to bring home with us, that we later made Garlic oil from. The festival had lots of live music and traditional Japanese dancing, as well as a garlic summo match. 
People drew faces on bulbs of garlic and inserted toothpics in a tri-pod for legs, and had a summo match! One of the JET's took first place! The pageant queen from the Gilroy, California Garlic festival was also there. It was nice to see so many of our friends at the festival, but it was also a very strange experience.
Takko is only about 30 minutes away from the U.S. Air Force base so the festival was about 50% Japanese and 50% Americans. It was the strangest form of culture shock I have ever experienced. It was also sad to see such a large group of Americans living in such a beautiful country that seemed to have very little interest in attempting to communicate and interact with the Japanese. It seemed almost as though inside the fence of the base was like a little America. It made me even more appreciative of the experience we are having living in such a rural fishing community in Japan. The festival ended at 3pm so we decided to check out a waterfall we had seen a sign for earlier in the day. It was rather small in comparison to what we were expecting but it was still very very beautiful. The water was falling from a very large boulder rather than off the edge of a cliff like most of the waterfalls I have seen in the past. We had originally planned to stay the night in Takko at a fellow JET's house but because I wasn't feeling very well by the end of the festival we decided to drive home. Fortunately the weather was much nicer on the drive home and we did not get lost so we made it home in about 2.5 hours, just in time for a game of cards and dinner at our house with Genny!
(10/4) Sunday-Today we spent the day relaxing at home, I was pretty worn out after such a long day yesterday. We did start one more project around the house... we are refinishing our traditional Japanese doors in our spare room! Unfortunately we forgot to take before pictures :( But I will post pictures once the job is complete!(10/5) Monday- I was starting to feel much worse this morning and in fear that the medication I have been taking was not working we headed to the doctor. Fortunately Eric was able to take the 2nd half of the day off to go with me. We drove to Hirosaki which is about an hour away because the hospital there has an English speaking doctor. Medical care in Japan works a little differently than in the states, there are no private practice doctors so to be seen you must go to the hospital. Also, not all hospitals are open 24 hours. Eric's supervisor called the hospital ahead of time to make sure the doctor was there so they were expecting us. As soon as I walked in they asked if my name was Melissa and they put me at the front of the line becaue the doctors shift was ending. During triage we were trying to use our dictionary to explain the symptoms and how long it had been going on, and also to try and decipher what the nurse was asking about. Eventually she went and found a girl who worked in another part of the hospital who happened to speak some English to help us transalte. She was extremely helpful! I then saw the doctor and the whole process was over in about 30 minutes. Next came waiting at the pharmacy, which was unfortunately much slower. Although, once my number was called we figured out what took so long. The doctor perscribed 12 different types of medication and they were translating all of the directions for me from a giant dictionary! The medication here is not usually a combination of various things as it would be in the U.S. so the 12 medications may only equate to 2 or 3 different perscriptions in the states. They also sealed the medication into indivdual doses based on the times of day that I should take it, probably because the instructions were very complicated to translate! It was extremely nice of them and I am super appreciative! Now, onto the road to recovery!
(10/6) Tuesday- One day worth of medication and I am already feeling better!! YAY! Today I went to the town office to meet Mika. She is the international affairs officer and she is putting on a foreign foods festival in a few weeks that Eric and I will be helping with to represent America! While discussing what food Eric and I should prepare I learned that not many people in Japan have ever heard of cornbread so I thought it would be great for the festival. I took a batch with me to the office today so that she (and her coworkers) could sample it. It was quite the hit! By the time I left several of them had made photocopies of the recipe and asked for directions to the foreign food store to buy the cornmeal! It was really nice to speak to someone who knows so much about Ajigasawa, and speaks English very well. We spent several hours together and had very few language barrier issues! She also gave me several facts about Ajigasawa for an article that I am writing for Wikipedia that you will soon be able to see for yourself online!
(10/7) Wednesday- Today we had our second Ekaiwa (English) Class! Unfortunately many of the members were very busy harvesting apples and rice so we had a small class. We got to talk about a lot more though and it was great to hear how well they can speak and understand English! Yuki (the man who took us up to Mt. Iwaki-san) brought us a map of Japan and a map of the World to hang in our house. I am so excited about this because it remidns me of my room at my parents house where i have a map of the world hanging with pins of everywhere I have been!
Today we also finished the door project! We have been redoing the Fusuma doors in our house. Fusuma means wooden sliding door covered with paper. It was a little harder than we thought, but we were able to do it, now we have beautiful traditional japanese doors in our spare room. When we got here the paper that was on them was severely water damaged (and a little moldy) and had a whicker curtain tacked up over it, and then it had two layers of curtains hanging over it. Now that we have taken everything else down and refinished the doors, we are very happy with them :)
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