The next incredible thing that happened was a sleepover at my friend's house--and this truly was the stuff dreams are made of. We did pretty much all the Japanese summer activities I've always wanted to do, it was just perfect.

First, some background--I made this absolutely wonderful, marvelous, wise, nerdy, brilliant friend here by the name of Nicole. We'd been getting along quite well in the past few weeks, and she decided to host a bunch of friends at her host family's house for a sleepover. Nicole's host family happens to be quite wealthy, but we were in no way prepared for the evening we got to spend at this house.

Her host mother and her host mother's friends picked us up at the Komatsu station, and drove us to her her house. The area was also beautiful, all big rice patties and pretty houses.

We came in the house and there was so much food prepared for us: everything from sashimi to taiyaki to yakiniku. I sometimes wish I was the type of girl who ate like a bird, but that's just not who I am. I ate until I couldn't breathe. There was so, so much food, it was incredible (and it honestly would have been a waste not to indulge).

Then Nicole took us on a tour of the house. The place we would sleep was a traditional tatami room:

Nicole's also in the picture, wearing the yukata her host family lent her for the night. She looked so beautiful; she's as crazy for Japanese culture as I am so naturally all night she was on cloud nine. She's standing next to this absolutely insane golden shrine that her family owns, of which I took about a thousand pictures (because who would believe me?).

After she showed us around the rest of the house, we went outside and did はなび, fireworks, together! It's something I've seen a thousand times in anime (the most , and have always wanted to do with my friends. They were much more sparklers than fireworks, of course, but I was so, so happy. We all ran around in the dark with the different colored sparklers and pretended to cast Harry Potter spells.

One of the fireworks has a superstition associated with it: it's a small, thin sparkler that you hold at the top and light from the bottom. If the spark makes it all the way up to your fingers without going out or dropping to the ground, you'll find true love. My tiny little spark took a while to light, but was the only one to not drop or go out--looks like I'll be finding true love!

After that, we spread out our futons and talked until late into the night. I showered in their ridiculously extravagant shower, and we all fell asleep happy and full.

The next morning, though, breakfast was just as gorgeous and tasty. They even bought a huge box of macarons for us to eat after breakfast. What an awesome night. I'm still not over it.

Here's a picture of our breakfast!

Here are some more pictures of their incredible house: