Heeere's Jess!

Before we went to Australia, we got to see Jess! She was our third visitor from Evanston since we arrived four months ago (the first two were Mark & Julie, thanks again for coming!). That's three more visitors than we expected! Keep on coming, folks...you have approximately three and a half more months to take advantage of your free tour of Tokyo.
Jess, her friend Megumi, and Megumi's friend Rei came for dinner on Monday, July 11th. Megumi later--via Jess--complimented me, saying something like, "when she speaks English, she's American, but when she speaks Japanese, she becomes Japanese." Thanks, Megumi! This may be true, but it also left me feeling a little awkward when Jess & co. initially arrived. We were all happy to speak English so Jess would know what we were saying, except I always--this time was no exception--feel so weird speaking English to Japanese people. No one was thinking twice about it except me, likely. And the awkwardness I felt soon dissipated
as Koji got us involved in a game of "umbrella golf". See the picture above...By the way, if you think Jess' lips look strangely purple in the above picture, it's not that our room is that cold (though we do have a nice air conditioning system that I'm more and more thankful for). No, we started this game of golf just after eating a berry dessert; perhaps Jess' next tube of lipstick should be this shade? (just kidding, Jess!) The following day was the day Koji and I left for Australia, but our flight was scheduled for 9:30 p.m. While Koji was off at nursery school for the morning, Jess and Megumi and I met for some girl time at Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park. There were a few too many mosquitoes there loving the taste of my ankles, but otherwise it was refreshing to be in the middle of downtown Tokyo surrounded by trees. After a trip to a 100 yen shop (what with I do without you, beloved 100 yen shop?!!), we finished off with some coffee at Segafredo. The only dissatisfactory aspect of Jess' visit was that we didn't get to spend more time together. Thanks for coming, Jess!!