The start of summer vacation, August 17th, is still very vivid. I met a group of my friends at a local café to organise a plan of activities. While it looked like a lot of hassle and hard work was involved, it did mean I'd be with my friends for the whole holiday period. I live alone, but I'm usually fine with the simple company of a good book. I'm not sure how I felt about spending all of my time with them, but I'd assume it was something positive.  

To kick off the long awaited summer, we made a trip to the swimming pool. It was pretty busy, but it wasn't so bad overall. I remember admiring the swimming costume the leader of our group was wearing, as it was a nice orange colour that really stood out. Actually, it was a bright pink costume with darker pink highlights. Or was it a multicolour swimsuit with hearts on it? I can't remember, but she does seem to have a large swimwear collection, so it's hard to keep track of these things. Whichever it was, it certainly suited her. I'm not one for swimming, but I enjoyed drifting around in my inner tube. 

We also made sure to attend the Obon festival, where the rest of the group got up to their usual antics. I think I spent too much time figuring out which mask I wanted to buy from one of the vendors, but I was a little bit distracted. I know there was something I was trying to remember. Something really important that I needed to let everyone know. If I hadn't been sneaking sips of sake when their backs were turned, I might have remembered. 

There was also a day where we all got temporary jobs. We all dressed up in silly costumes like those girls from K-On!, except we were paid to do it. I'm not really sure how we managed to get the jobs considering the lack of opportunities and local demand, but I get the feeling it had something to do with the unbearable heat at the time. I'm not bothered by heat (or much else, to be honest), but it seems the others weren't doing so good. 

There were also the little things that helped make the whole experience that much more memorable. We went hunting for cicadas, played a little baseball and even went fishing! It was great to finally experience these things for myself, rather than read them from a book. I don't remember too much about the end of the summer vacation, but I do remember that one of the guys had some homework to do. It's a shame it was cut short for him, but homework is important! Really important!

That concludes my blog post about my summer vacation. All of these activities made me really appreciate the close group of friends I have, and in some respects I didn't want the summer to end. It did feel a little bit longer than the school breaks usually are, but we had so much going on that I didn't mind at all. All I hope is that we have even bigger plans for the next holidays!