This is how we celebrate America in Japan

Let's rewind back to July 4th, shall we?

I never wrote about it, so I'm taking the opportunity now...

'Twas a lovely day. I hung out with my ALT (assistant language teacher) friends in Ninohe and introduced them to grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Very American. Elvis ate and loved them, you know.
Uh huh huh. :)

We made a CD of "American songs," which we listened to on the way to Lauren's Independence Day party, where I met up with the Kuji gang and other friends.

Lauren is quite the party thrower. Her place was soooo festive. (Thanks to her mom, who mailed her a bunch of decorations. Believe it or not, you can't find Independence Day decorations in Japan, haha.)

Can you even believe this picture was taken in Japan?? So American!

I've never in my life seen a carved watermelon like this. Genius! Love the carved fireworks.

Cute! Janine is on the left and Lauren the hostess is on the right.

I had such a great time at the party--munching and chatting away--but what I really enjoyed about the evening was celebrating an American holiday with people of all different nationalities! There were Japanese friends and students and ALTs from England, Ireland and New Zealand.

Three of Lauren's students displaying the American flags that Janine (who is from England!) painted on their hands. Love it!

Janine and I wearing Statue of Liberty hats (um, I guess you'd call them hats?), which kind of block P.J.'s face in this picture. Sorry, P.J.! The guy kneeling is Peter, the other British ALT at the party besides Janine.

The July 4th party ended in a predictable way -- with fireworks and sparklers, of course!

Ok. So I'll let you in on a little secret. Shhh, don't tell: This picture and the ones below are not actually from July 4th. They're from a BBQ I went to back in April, where we also had sparklers and fireworks. I've just never shared these photos, and I think they're pretty cool (err...I mean hot?) if I do say so myself. :) But if I'd taken pictures of the sparklers we had on Independence Day, they would have looked like these...

I believe that's Lauren, but I'm not positive.

I have no idea who this is. But the sparkler sure looks neat in this photo! Makes me think of a spell being cast from a magic wand or something. By the way, I'm going to go see the new Harry Potter movie tonight!! Yay! I'll have to write about that next time...

And now I leave you with a picture of two super cute kids I met at that BBQ back in April. They were ALL smiles the whole evening, and I couldn't get enough of them!

Peace out for now! :)

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To read my lastest entry in "Keep Shining," click here.