Autumn sunshine

I think the typhoon season has finally departed and I'm hopeing we're now into low humid, plenty of sunshine, burnt red, yellow and green autumn! Got woken this morning by the banging of a rather large drum, being pulled along the street below us by a bunch of kids and cheered on by some old people (grandparents, I think). It was the smallest "festival" I'd ever witnessed, and there was nobody else watching them, although I did spot a couple of peekers from the windows in the hospital accross the road. The procession pulled up in front of my mansion building and everyone drank some "mugicha", which is a very pleasant, thirst quenching tea the Japanese drink in the summer, made from barley. A couple of the younger children began fighting over the drum sticks, with the little girl in the yukata winning the contest over the bigger boy, who then went crying to his grandpa.
All this before the day has even began!
Last night we entertained some friends for dinner - Kyo-chan, Hiro-kun and Linn-kun - old friends of Miyu, who'd been up since the crack of dawn mountain climbing, swimming and playing baseball. Kyo-chan and Hiro-kun were both exhausted, but their boy, Linn, was completely hyper, saying he wanted to go to Book-Off (a second hand book store which sells manga, cds, computer games and foreign books), and buy some manga.
After they'd cycled home, another friend, Akihito, came over for some drinks. He's just recovered from a collapsed lung, but is already back to his crazy schedule of holding down a full time job as an architect, two part-time jobs in restaurants and doing voluntary work at the UN Universtity! Isn't that crazy!
Well, we talked into the wee hours about hopes and aspirations for the future, and he left with a sore head, wobbling slightly as he peddled away on his golden bicycle, saying his head hurt.