Respect for the Aged Day

Yesterday, Monday the 20th, was Respect for the Aged Day, so we didn't have class. Instead, I hung out at home in the morning and later went to catch dragon flies in the park, get a bus pass, and go to a concert with my host mother.

I thought I might've heard wrong when my host family asked if I wanted to come to the park to catch dragon flies "because praying mantises eat them". I went along and sure enough we had a net (just like in Animal Crossing!) and checked out the park which was really pretty and had a playground, including a really big wooden jungle gym, a baseball field, and a couple paths going into some trees around it. There were also a ton of mushrooms, probably because it rained the other day, and my host mother seemed to know which mushrooms were edible and which weren't for the most part. At first we didn't find many dragon flies, but after I missed on my first attempt, I let my host mom go after the next one and she did so successfully. The paths around the park were laid out in such a way that they took up little space but still gave the impression that you were walking through a forest.

Getting the bus pass and then riding the subway to the concert was easy enough, though we got there a little earlier so we went to a museum about the history of the area. We also stopped at a coffee/hot drink shop and killed time until the concert started. It was an indoor concert hall and seemed to be packed out, mostly with middle aged women who knew this now older singer from their childhood. His music did sound like something my grandparents might like or maybe my mom, but it wasn't bad either. He played guitar and had people playing piano, cello, flute, and maybe one or two other things to accompany him. Unfortunately for me, he also talked for like 20-30 minutes every few songs and I couldn't really follow what he was saying, but everyone else seemed to find it funny. After it was over, I was super tired and we headed home (after getting some curry somewhere) and went to bed.