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April 8

Well, this past weekend was pretty eventful. I went to Sapporo to do a little shopping and then I visited my friend John in Kitamura, a small farming town north of Iwamizawa city. I ended up spending too much money, mostly because I bought a new digital camera. You will probably notice that the pictures on my site will be a little more square than the previous pictures, due to the different picture proportions that my new camera takes.
I decided to take a few pictures of the office to try out my new camera. I'm pretty happy with the results. This picture is of one of the many ikebana (flower arrangements) that are always being placed in our office building.
The building entrance as viewed from the third floor.	This is where any concert in the building is held. Right now there is a photo exhibit.
The building entrance as viewed from outside.	This building houses a lot of the government offices for my district (Kamikawa).
Another view of the lobby.

April 9
Fun Wednesday

On the second Wednesday of every month, the Asahikawa International Committee holds "Fun Wednesday." It is a chance for the citizens of Asahikawa to come out and practice their English through games, cultural exchanges, etc. This time, Mike, Julianna, and myself were the presenters for the afternoon session of Fun Wednesday.
For the first hour, we organized a few games that would give the participants a chance to practice their English. In the second hour, we broke them up into groups and gave them each a random product. They had to then create a commercial and present it to the class. I was so impressed by the great commercials that the groups came up with. Here are a few pictures of the event.
Working on a commercial.	"How can we best market these sunglasses?"
"Hmm... Lipton Creamy Chicken, only 8 minutes to make!"	"You won't find a better toothpaste!"
Ms. Fumiko Kumagai is the head of the International Committee	Our youngest participant
"These are magic sunglasses!"	"You can do anything with these!"
"It's Creamy Chicken!"
There are always two sessions of Fun Wednesday. I didn't present the evening session, but I did attend it anyway. Most of the evening session was presented by Lena, an artist from Germany who has been studying under a Japanese artist for the past few months. That is a picture of her to the left.
Thinking hard	Listening Intently
Yui and Misato, two Asahikawa Higashi High School students	Iga, in all his glory
A group of us went out later	I apologize for the bluriness of the picture