The day started out with some over cast, but by the end of the day the sun was out and about. Everyone was kind of shocked to see the sun, because it had been raining for about a week. We all ate like it was our last meal, Mark sure knows how to cook! He grilled up some steaks, chicken, corn, and he made a huge pot of Thai curry [mouth is watering].

What is it with men and explosives? Anything that a deaf person can hear, men get excited over; they start to drool, their left leg goes numb. What is the fascination guys!? Ken had bought enough fireworks to flatten a entire city block, but that wasn't enough. Tim had to drag Ken, (OK he wasn't exactly dragging him), to the local Sundays (a Japanese version of Home Depot). Sunday's, I thought, had a pretty decent selection displayed on a couple of shelves, "They have a better selection at Sanwado's" (another Home Depot type place), Tim said. Sanwa's had one wall dedicated to fireworks of all sizes, makes, and models. Tim bought the Mega Bucket of Explosives, plus a couple of mortars for an added extra bonus of neighborhood superiority. Ken didn't want to feel inferior to Tim's arsenal collection, so he bought a few mortars and SAMs of his own. Oh, I feel safe.

It didn't even get dark before the MEN were lighting off their bottle rockets over a poor farmer's field; which sat behind Mark's house. Not that it mattered, because we couldn't tell what was growing there anyway. A couple of hours of scaring the locals had past, and someone suggested going to Miss Vedol Beach to light off the colourful fireworks.

You would figure, since it's July it would be hot. Not in northern Japan. It was getting close to 1900 hrs, and it must have been in the high 50's. And of course being on the beach, it was a tad windy. Miss Vedol beach is a historical location. This is where the first transpacific flight started from. The two gentlemen who made this successful run from Misawa, Japan to Wenatchee, Washington State, in their small plane, the Miss Vedol, were Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon. Although not nearly as famous as a certain person who made the first transatlantic crossing; they are considered heroes to Misawa.

Now all that remains of that historic flight are a wooden replica of the "Miss Vedol", and a large paved area for flying model airplanes. There were no model planes flying today, and it's a good thing too, because we could of had our own mini SAM site trying to knock planes out of the air.

As the day slowly turned to night, Ken, Tim, and Chief Robinson put on a little pyrotechnic show for us, using what was left of their arsenal collection. They had big mortars and small mortars. Cone shaped sparklers and Roman Candles. There was even a paper gun with a sparkler hanging out it's nozzle. It was amusing when Ken, who couldn't read the direction (because it was in Japanese), lit one of the larger mortars upside down. At first he wondered why nothing was happening, until it fell over, and small balls of fire shot out. luckily it fell over away from everyone, way to go Ken!

And that's how we spent our Independence Day.