July 8th was Kaku´s birthday and I went to his apartment with Kyeong to celebrate. We were going to make and eat gyoza together with a bunch of Kaku´s other friends. However, we were the only ones there on time so we had to do most of the gyoza making work by ourselves. Well, I actually only helped when folding the gyozas but I folded a lot of them. Anyway, it was really fun and we talked and had gyoza and beer and later on some Korean noodles that Kyeong brought. Among Kaku´s friends were a Canadian girl, who speaks pretty good Japanese which she has learned on her own working as an english teacher, and a Japanese guy, who works together with Kaku at a convenience store. The Japanese guy pointed out that Kaku is really fluent in Japanese - when it comes to cusswords and foul language. Kaku quickly replied with some foul words. Finally we had two birthday cakes, the first of which we ake from our palms because Kaku was out of plates, and the second was eaten from it´s plate, everyone using chopsticks to dig into it. I didn´t eat the second one though. Later on we went to karaoke, but I got really tired and felt like sleeping so I didn´t sing very much. Afterwards I went straight home and to bed. I had a good night´s rest.

I had a quite bizarre, but pleasant, evening recently. I went to the pub which I´ve been to and wrote about earlier, and this time Kyeong went along. We sat down next to a couple of Japanese women and after a while we started talking to each other. The thing with this pub is that the Japanese come to speak English to foreigners. I, however, just come to have a good time regardless of language. First they only spoke Japanese to Kyeong and asked her if I knew some Japanese. When we explained that we are in the same class they gasped. The had thought Kyeong was Japanese. Anyway, they wanted to speak in English and made good effort, but since I and Kyeong usually speak Japanese to each other we did so here too. So the foreigners spoke Japanese to each other and English to the Japanese... Another bizarre encounter together with Kyeong was that with a fox when we walked in the Maruyama Park one evening. It lay on a wall and I quickly took a picture as soon as I spotted it before it ran away. But it didn´t run away. Well, then I can move bit closer and get a better shot I thought and did so. No reaction whatsoever. When we finally got so close that it wasn´t more than 3 meters between us, I was the one to become frightened. It must be sick or something. What if it jumps on us and bites us. We might have to go to the doctor and that might get expensive. So I took one last shot and we hurried off. The fox, however, lay there as if it hadn´t even noticed us in the first place, only moving when shifting resting position. 

The last week before summer vacation was terrible. I couldn´t concentrate on anything but the trip. The classes were hard to endure and I constantly wandered off in my mind and lost concentration. When the week was finally over I was completely exhausted. On top of this I lost the key to my bike. I must have lost it an the dormitory but neither me nor anyone else have seen a trace of it. The only good thing about the week was when I went to Odori park to relax. I sat and watched smething I haven´t seen before - children bathing in the fountains wearing bathing clothes or diapers. I guess it is too far, to expensive or to inconvenient to go to the ocean... The last night of the week I went with Kyeong to watch fireworks by the river running through central Sapporo and by Makomanai, close to the university where I studied as an exchange student last year. After waiting for a while fireworks started by the river, in a small scale. And they quickly ended. It was just some family playing around. Soon afterwards a big firework lit up the sky behind some high buildings on he other side of the river. then nothing. Wrong night? Whatever. We chatted for a while and went home. I had some packing to do before the morning, when I would leave for Fukuoka.