After i got my tires today i was planning on going to go grocery shopping in Kutchan. However, the music teacher called me as soon as i got home. Apparently the tuba player in the brass band had fallen ill, and they are playing some songs for tomorrow for the "life practice festival" i guess is what it would be called. So i was just a minute from the public gym so i went there to practice with them. It was really good timing. I will play with them tomorrow in the morning. I guess it is part of the culture day festival stuff. After practice, the people there had a large bunch of red and yellow peppers, so they let me take 6 of them. I only wanted 4 but they told me to take some more. I will use them in the sweet and sour pork i can make. Then after that i went to the local grocery to do my shopping. This week seems to be the week when everyone takes their produce and sells it because winter is coming soon. All the fields have been razed and the crops are drying. Chicken has been cheap for a little while now. For the past three or four days, it has been less than a dollar a pound about. I bought 8 breasts to stock up for the week. I went home and got ready to go to the party. I don't like wearing costumes, so i did not dress up. Good thing too, it was just raining when i left from Rankoshi, but then as i went north it turned into sleet and snow. By the time i was in Kutchan, the plants and ground were covered in it. I didn't want to risk anything, so i turned back and went home. I was just going to be curry for dinner at the party, and i didn't want to drive two hours, be there for two hours, then drive home for two hours in what would probably be worse conditions. The weather here seems to last for like an entire day. The rain lasts and lasts, and i am assuming the snow does too. I guess the next time i go up there will be by train. I am kind of glad i did turn back, because now i wont be tired and i can get a good night's rest for the thing tomorrow with the band.